IMT redeployment in Mindanao seen next month

A 60-man international peacekeeping team will return to Mindanao next month to monitor the ceasefire agreement between government troops and Moro separatist rebels, the government chief negotiator said on Thursday. Rafael Seguis, who is also concurrent Foreign Affairs undersecretary, said the International Monitoring Team (IMT) would come from Brunei, Libya, Japan and Malaysia, which will lead the contingent. Also invited to be part of the team were the European Union, Qatar, Indonesia, and Norway, but Seguis said they have yet to receive an official response from them. The IMT, which has a one-year renewable mandate, will be redeployed on the first week of March, according to Seguis. “Their presence would be a boost to the peace talks. We expect them on the ground early next month," he said. An advance team from Malaysia has already been deployed in Mindanao to conduct an ocular inspection prior to the arrival of the IMT. Government negotiators and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has fought for Muslim self-rule in the southern Philippines for decades, last month resumed talks following a yearlong hiatus. The IMT left in 2008 after peace talks bogged down when both sides failed to sign an expanded Muslim homeland agreement that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. - KBK, GMANews.TV