Philippine Muslim rebel groups agree to reconcile
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' two main Muslim separatist groups have agreed to resolve differences and work together for peace and growth in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said his group agreed on a cooperation plan with the rival Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) after both sides held a five-hour meeting with the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Manila.
Kabalu's group broke away from the MNLF after Libya brokered a ceasefire between Manila and Muslim rebels in 1976, convincing the separatists to abandon a plan to set up an independent state and accept limited autonomy.
The MNLF signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 while the MILF is likely to do so next year. However, the rivalry between the two Islamic groups is seen as a sticking point.
"It was a productive meeting," Kabalu said, adding the two groups promised to work out a "joint action plan" to end 40 years of conflict with government and spur economic activities in war-torn areas on the southern island of Mindanao.
"We promised to iron out whatever differences we had have in the past not later than September 2008 and come up with a single roadmap to develop Muslim communities in the south."
Leaders of the two rebel groups met Saiful al-Islam Gaddafi at a Manila hotel on Tuesday night.
Negotiators from the government and the MILF are meeting in Kuala Lumpur at the weekend to draft a text on an agreement and are hoping to sign a final deal by August 2008.
"We're not talking to merge our two forces together," Kabalu said, adding the two rebel groups would only work for a common goal to end four decades of fighting that has killed 120,000 people and stunted growth in the resource-rich south.
"We have no quarrel with the MILF," Muslimin Sema, one of the key leaders of the MNLF, told Reuters in an earlier interview.
"Perhaps, we can find ways to complement each other."
(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Sanjeev Miglani)
