The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group will work parallel to the government to clear landmines and unexploded bombs left by decades of conflict on troubled Mindanao island, a guerrilla leader said yesterday.
This would help convince 100,000 displaced people to return home to the southern island, Mohaqher Iqbal, a senior leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said after two days of peace talks with the government in Kuala Lumpur.
The talks are unlikely to conclude before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s term ends on June 30, so negotiations will be taken over by the winner of elections on May 10.
The government, which destroyed its stockpile of anti-personnel Claymore-type mines before it signed a mine-ban treaty in 2000, said during the talks this week that it would conduct mine clearing operations.
“Many of the displaced families are eager to return home and rebuild their lives, but some are still worried over their safety due to the unresolved conflict and potential dangers from these explosives,” Iqbal said from Kuala Lumpur.
Iqbal said there was an unknown number of mines, unexploded devices and artillery rounds left in conflict areas, and dozens of people had been killed or wounded by these explosives since late 2008, the last major conflict in the long-running war.
Soliman Santos of the Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines said it would take two years to clear the mines and unexploded ordnance such as bombs, artillery and mortar shells.
“But we can immediately teach displaced people some safety measures, including identifying explosives,” Santos said.
“People in the south are aware of the dangers posed by these explosives and this could be among the reasons why they are not returning to their homes,” he said.
Nearly 750,000 people were displaced when the conflict flared after a proposed deal on the creation of a Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic state was blocked by the Supreme Court in August 2008.
The conflict has run for more than 40 years. More than 120,000 people have been killed and around 2 million have been displaced.
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