Supreme Court halts Manila's deal with Muslims
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
The agreement was meant to formally re-open peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced 2 million, and stunted growth in the region.
MANILA, August 4 (Reuters): The Philippines' Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on Monday halting a territorial deal between the government and Muslim separatists in the latest setback for peace in the nation's volatile south.
The agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group, was set to be signed in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday after more than 10 years of stop-start talks.
"There will be no signing tomorrow. I got a call from the (Supreme) court," Jesus Dureza, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, told Reuters.
The deal was meant to widen an existing autonomous region for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country and give them wide political and economic powers, including control over mineral wealth in an area rich in nickel, gold, gas and oil.
"I don't know what will happen next," Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF's chief peace negotiator, told Reuters.
Catholic politicians in the south had asked the Supreme Court to halt the signing ceremony arguing that they had not been consulted on the deal, which they fear will carve up the southern island of Mindanao into Muslim enclaves.
"Do not build a Berlin Wall among the people in Mindanao," Celso Lobregat, mayor of the mainly Catholic city of Zamboanga, had earlier told a crowd of around 10,000 people.
The Supreme Court has asked both sides to present their cases on August 15. The agreement was meant to formally re-open peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced 2 million, and stunted growth in the region.
MANILA, August 4 (Reuters): The Philippines' Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on Monday halting a territorial deal between the government and Muslim separatists in the latest setback for peace in the nation's volatile south.
The agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group, was set to be signed in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday after more than 10 years of stop-start talks.
"There will be no signing tomorrow. I got a call from the (Supreme) court," Jesus Dureza, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, told Reuters.
The deal was meant to widen an existing autonomous region for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country and give them wide political and economic powers, including control over mineral wealth in an area rich in nickel, gold, gas and oil.
"I don't know what will happen next," Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF's chief peace negotiator, told Reuters.
Catholic politicians in the south had asked the Supreme Court to halt the signing ceremony arguing that they had not been consulted on the deal, which they fear will carve up the southern island of Mindanao into Muslim enclaves.
"Do not build a Berlin Wall among the people in Mindanao," Celso Lobregat, mayor of the mainly Catholic city of Zamboanga, had earlier told a crowd of around 10,000 people.
The Supreme Court has asked both sides to present their cases on August 15. The agreement was meant to formally re-open peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, displaced 2 million, and stunted growth in the region.