KUALA LUMPUR: The difficult process of disarming Philippine Muslim rebels after a decades-long insurgency has started, negotiators said yesterday, with the decommissioning of a first batch of firearms expected before year-end.
Philippine government and Muslim rebel negotiators started meeting in Malaysia on Saturday to discuss the disarmament process, key to ending the insurgency in the country’s south and sealing a peace deal.
The two sides have appointed three foreign experts — from Brunei, Turkey and Norway — to join an independent body that will oversee the decommissioning process, together with four local experts who are yet to be nominated.
“Decommissioning is a delicate and difficult component of any peace settlement. It must be done effectively and sensitively,” chief Philippine government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement.
The meeting will continue until today.
Chief rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal had said earlier that 75 assorted firearms, including high-powered rifles, would be stored and padlocked in a warehouse as part of the “normalisation” process that will see the rebels trade their weapons for a chance to join mainstream society.
“Decommissioning firearms is really very difficult, but you have to undertake the ultimate sacrifice just to have the Bangsamoro,” Iqbal said.
AFP
