Deal in Malaysia: Let monitors stay

The government and separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) agreed on Wednesday to extend the mandate of international ceasefire monitors until 2013 despite recent clashes that killed scores of combatants and civilians.

The government and the MILF also said that they’ll meet again next month to fast-track talks on an autonomy agreement for minority Muslims who have been fighting for self-rule for decades in Mindanao, which has been dominantly Christian populated as a result of settlements offered for free by government decades ago.

The latest round of talks was held in Malaysia, which is leading a team of international ceasefire monitors. About 60 monitors, who have been based in the southern Mindanao region since 2004, also include members from Libya, Brunei, Norway, Japan and the European Union.

Talks have been called into question since the government accused the rebels of killing 19 government soldiers in an ambush in October. But President Aquino had rejected calls for an all-out offensive against the 11,000-strong rebels and refused to scrap the peace talks.

Mr. Aquino said what the country needed was “all out justice,” not all out war.

In his opening statement in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, chief government negotiator Marvic Leonen called for the completion of the political settlement within the first quarter of next year and expressed satisfaction with the conditions on the ground.

The rebels did not comment immediately beyond the joint statement. They are, however, given the task of bringing in Ameril Umra Kato, a former MILF leader who had gone renegade and is threatening the talks.

During earlier talks, the guerrillas rejected a government proposal for autonomy as falling short of their expectation and said they wanted a status for Muslims akin to a US federal state, which could require amendments to the Constitution. The government did not agree, saying it wants to preserve the Philippines as a unitary republic under its current Constitution.

The subsequent violence and bouts of fighting also highlighted the shortcomings of the ceasefire agreement, which also calls on the rebels to assist government troops in eliminating “lawless elements”—an ambiguous reference that includes past and current rebels accused by the government of a range of crimes from murder to kidnapping.