MANILA, Jan 14: The Philippines is ready to resume peace talks with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the government’s chief peace negotiator said on Wednesday, after he was instructed by the president to go to Malaysia next week.

Kuala Lumpur is the intermediary in the negotiations between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front

(MILF) that were bogged down in August 2008 after a deal to expand an existing Muslim autonomous region on the southern Mindanao island was stopped by the Supreme Court.

Enraged rogue elements of the MILF then attacked Catholic-dominated communities, burning homes and farms and killing civilians, forcing the army to launch offensives.

More than 300 people were killed and more than 500,000 forced to flee their homes and farms. The government then decided to end peace talks with the MILF.

“We will go to Malaysia to talk with facilitators who will formally inform the MILF (about the resumption of talks),” Rafael Seguis, an undersecretary at the foreign ministry and head of the government’s new peace panel talking with Muslim rebels, told reporters.

Seguis said he was instructed by President Glorial Macapagal Arroyo to convey Manila’s desire to pursue peace in the south and to resume talks with the 11,000-member Muslim separatist group.

He said the peace panel would leave for Kuala Lumpur after a new peace policy, outlining the government’s strategy in dealing with Muslim rebels and other stakeholders in the south, was presented to Arroyo’s cabinet next Tuesday.

Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebels’ chief negotiator, said that the MILF would only agree to resume talks if an army offensive in Muslim areas is stopped and a third country would guarantee any agreement with Manila would be carried out.

“We have communicated our position to the Malaysians,” Iqbal said. “We still have to see what the other side would offer to restart the talks. We’re open to negotiations.”

In her meetings with local officials in the Muslim autonomous region on Wednesday, Arroyo emphasised her government’s commitment to resume peace with Muslim rebels to end 40 years of conflict that has killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.—Reuters