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MALAYSIAN Foreign Minister Rais Yatim will visit the
Philippines on Wednesday to hold talks with key
diplomatic officials on his government’s plan to pull
out its forces from Mindanao following the virtual
collapse of the seven-year peace talks between the
Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF).
The
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Yatim will meet
with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo during his
one-day visit to the country on May 7. The matter at
stake is whether Malaysia would totally abandon its
peacekeeping role in
Mindanao after its mandate expires in September this year.
The
Malaysian peacekeeping force, composed of 41 military
and police officers, had been in strife-torn areas in
Mindanao since 2004 as part of the International Monitoring Team (IMT).
They were joined by 10 military officers from
Brunei
and five from Libya. The IMT has obtained support from
Canada and Japan.
The team
is tasked to monitor any violations of the 2001
cease-fire agreement forged between the Philippine
government and the MILF.
The two
parties remain tied to the contentious issue on
ancestral domain that is being demanded by the 12,000
forces of the MILF. |
