Formal peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) opened Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila said negotiators from both sides began a round of the Malaysian-brokered talks at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's main city. The chief government negotiator, Rafael Seguis, voiced confidence of eventually achieving “a peace settlement that is just, lasting, acceptable and truly beneficial to the Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao and to the entire Filipino people.” “I am excited and brimming with optimism because we have, at last, reached this day when we formally resume the peace negotiations,” Seguis said at a closed-door ceremony attended by diplomats from Britain, Japan and Turkey. Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF negotiator, also was quoted in a statement as saying that “there is no other way ... except the path of peace.” Peace negotiations with the rebels fell apart in August last year when the Supreme Court in Manila declared unconstitutional a preliminary accord on an expanded Moro autonomous region. A statement said both sides are discussing the revival of an International Monitoring Team of ceasefire observers, which includes troops from Libya and Brunei. The two sides are also expected to renew an agreement in which the rebels have committed to help government forces interdict kidnap gangs active in the southern Philippines.
