MANILA - THE Philippine government announced a new team of negotiators on Thursday for peace talks with communist guerrillas, saying that ending one of Asia's longest and bloodiest Marxist insurgencies will be tough but possible.
Norway has agreed to continue brokering the talks between the Philippines and the Maoist rebels. Government negotiators will try to break a six-year impasse and seek informal meetings with the rebels this year, said Alex Padilla, a prominent human rights lawyer who was appointed chief government negotiator.
Presidential peace process adviser Teresita Deles said the creation of the five-member negotiating panel headed by Padilla was a major step in government efforts to tame the 41-year rebellion.
She added that 'the journey to peace will not be easy.' More than 120,000 combatants and civilians have died in the rural-based rebellion that has afflicted nearly all of the Philippines' 81 provinces. It is considered to be the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's most serious security threat and a major obstacle to economic development. The Philippines also has been grappling with Muslim rebels and al-Qaida-linked militants in its volatile south.
Peace talks brokered by Norway have been suspended since 2004 after the rebels accused the Manila government of instigating their inclusion on US and European terrorist lists. The rebels also are demanding the release of several left-wing activists and guerrillas.
Mr Padilla said the government will study how to deal with the rebel inclusion in US and EU terrorist blacklists, but added that this was a sovereign decision of those countries. -- AP
