Malaysian monitoring team arrives in Maguindanao

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Members of the 51-man International Monitoring Team (IMT), composed of Malaysian military and police officers, arrived in Maguindanao Sunday sans the traditional festivities accorded to visiting dignitaries.

The IMT will help oversee the implementation of the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Malaysia, a member-country of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), is helping mediate the government-MILF talks, which started Jan. 7, 1997 but has repeatedly been marred by security problems in many areas supposedly covered by the ceasefire.

From the nearby Awang Airport, the group was escorted by uniformed and plainclothes operatives of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, to the Estosan Hotel in Cotabato City, not far from the 32-hectare regional government compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

On Saturday, the MILF’s chieftain, Al-Haj Murad, met reporters in a clandestine press conference at Darapanan, a secluded farming community in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, where he expressed optimism that the presence of the IMT in Central Mindanao will enhance the imposition of the ceasefire.

Murad said the MILF is keen on resuming peace talks with the government, a process he described as "better and more appropriate" than using military tactics and firepower in resolving the so-called "Mindanao problem."

At the Estosan Hotel, key officials of the IMT politely declined to answer querries of reporters, asserting that they would soon issue an official statement. — John Unson