Philippines rebels reject direct talks with Manila
MANILA May 20 (Reuters) - The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group on Tuesday rejected proposals by Manila peace negotiators for direct talks to move stalled negotiations forward.
Khaled Musa, a rebel spokesman, said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) opposed the government's attempt to "localise the peace process", describing the proposal as a crude attempt to ease out Malaysia, which is brokering the talks.
"There is absolutely no reason to look for new facilitators," Musa said in a statement posted on the rebel website, www.luwaran.com, a day after Manila's chief negotiator said he favoured more direct contact with the MILF to speed up talks.
"If there is a snag now in the talks, the government can only be blamed for its dilly-dallying tactics. They are only interested in perpetual ceasefire in Mindanao."
The 11,000-member MILF has been in a stop-start negotiations with the government for more than a decade to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
Talks, brokered by Malaysia since 2001, stalled in December 2007 over constitutional issues, but both sides were hoping a deal on ancestral domain could be wrapped up within the third quarter this year.
Malaysia, which has been brokering the MILF talks since 2001, has started pulling out its unarmed peace monitors in the south due to lack of progress but has said it will continue to broker the peace talks.
A shaky 2003 ceasefire is still holding despite some minor clashes and both sides have vowed not to break it and allow negotiations to continue.
On Monday, retired general Rodolfo Garcia, Manila's chief negotiator, said the two sides could accomplish more if Malaysia would allow the two sides to have more direct interaction. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Valerie Lee)
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