MANILA - The Philippine government and communist rebels waging one of the world's longest insurgencies are aiming to sign a peace pact within 18 months, the two sides said after holding landmark talks.
The parties released a joint statement late Feb. 21 following the end of a week of negotiations in Norway in which they committed to try and sign a "comprehensive agreement" to end hostilities by June of next year.
"The two panels expressed satisfaction over the achievements of the first round of formal talks," the statement said.
The negotiations in Oslo were the first between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) sides since 2004.
The communists have been waging a rebellion since 1969 and still have about 5,000 New People's Army guerrillas based in the mainly poor, rural areas of the Philippines.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, including dozens of rebels, civilians and security forces over the past few months.
Analysts said before the talks began in Norway that there was little chance of a quick end to the rebellion, with the communists determined to overhaul the country's economic model and railing against corruption by the nation's elite.
In his own statement released late Feb. 21, chief government negotiator Alex Padilla said even he had begun the talks with a "sense of dread" that they would be the "beginning of a dead end".
"But we have taken the first step," Padilla said.
"We have agreed on a timeframe of 18 months to produce the substantive agreements - on socio-economic reforms, on political and constitutional reforms, and on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces, leading to a final political settlement."
Nevertheless, Padilla expressed deep caution over the many hurdles still facing the peace negotiators.
"It will be hard, harder, perhaps, than anything else we have done in our lives to stay the course, which, in the first place, asks us to keep faith in the process. Are we up to this?" The next steps will include a range of lower-level working group meetings over the next few months to cover issues such as social and economic reforms.
Political and economic reforms will be discussed in another working group.
The government said it would also "work on appropriate measures to effect the expeditious release" of 14 detained communist rebel leaders that the NDF has long demanded be freed.
The government said it would also consider releasing four other communists the NDF had recently added to the list.
However, it made no firm commitment on releasing any of them.
In a reciprocal "confidence-building" measure, the communists said it would take steps towards releasing an unspecified number of people it was holding as prisoners.
One of the key reasons the previous round of peace talks broke down six years ago was a demand by the communists that the government have them removed from international terrorist lists.
However, there was no mention of the terrorism issue in the joint statement.
Another reason the talks fell apart in 2004 was the communists' distrust of then-president Gloria Arroyo, who vowed to crush the rebellion by the end of her term.
Her time in power ended in June last year with her military quest to extinguish the rebellion unfulfilled.
Her successor, President Benigno Aquino, immediately said he wanted to pursue peace talks with the communists.
He placed former human rights lawyers and other people deemed favorable by the communists on his peace negotiating panel.
The parties released a joint statement late Feb. 21 following the end of a week of negotiations in Norway in which they committed to try and sign a "comprehensive agreement" to end hostilities by June of next year.
"The two panels expressed satisfaction over the achievements of the first round of formal talks," the statement said.
The negotiations in Oslo were the first between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) sides since 2004.
The communists have been waging a rebellion since 1969 and still have about 5,000 New People's Army guerrillas based in the mainly poor, rural areas of the Philippines.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, including dozens of rebels, civilians and security forces over the past few months.
Analysts said before the talks began in Norway that there was little chance of a quick end to the rebellion, with the communists determined to overhaul the country's economic model and railing against corruption by the nation's elite.
In his own statement released late Feb. 21, chief government negotiator Alex Padilla said even he had begun the talks with a "sense of dread" that they would be the "beginning of a dead end".
"But we have taken the first step," Padilla said.
"We have agreed on a timeframe of 18 months to produce the substantive agreements - on socio-economic reforms, on political and constitutional reforms, and on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces, leading to a final political settlement."
Nevertheless, Padilla expressed deep caution over the many hurdles still facing the peace negotiators.
"It will be hard, harder, perhaps, than anything else we have done in our lives to stay the course, which, in the first place, asks us to keep faith in the process. Are we up to this?" The next steps will include a range of lower-level working group meetings over the next few months to cover issues such as social and economic reforms.
Political and economic reforms will be discussed in another working group.
The government said it would also "work on appropriate measures to effect the expeditious release" of 14 detained communist rebel leaders that the NDF has long demanded be freed.
The government said it would also consider releasing four other communists the NDF had recently added to the list.
However, it made no firm commitment on releasing any of them.
In a reciprocal "confidence-building" measure, the communists said it would take steps towards releasing an unspecified number of people it was holding as prisoners.
One of the key reasons the previous round of peace talks broke down six years ago was a demand by the communists that the government have them removed from international terrorist lists.
However, there was no mention of the terrorism issue in the joint statement.
Another reason the talks fell apart in 2004 was the communists' distrust of then-president Gloria Arroyo, who vowed to crush the rebellion by the end of her term.
Her time in power ended in June last year with her military quest to extinguish the rebellion unfulfilled.
Her successor, President Benigno Aquino, immediately said he wanted to pursue peace talks with the communists.
He placed former human rights lawyers and other people deemed favorable by the communists on his peace negotiating panel.
No comments:
Post a Comment