Mediator from Norway in RP to restart GRP-NDF talks

After paving the way to resume peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the government is now working to revive talks with the communist-backed National Democratic Front (NDF) as well. Presidential peace adviser Annabelle Abaya said a mediator from the Norwegian government is in the country to look for a way to reopen the stalled peace talks. Abaya had already informed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo about the mediator, according to an article posted on the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Web site. The article did not identify the Norwegian mediator. Peace talks were stalled in 2004 after the Philippine government refused to move to have the NDF removed from the United States and European Union’s lists of terrorist groups, but chances of resuming peace talks were briefly revived last July when the government lifted the suspension of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees. However, the NDF accused government of insincerity when the government did not work for the release of 14 peace negotiating panel consultants. Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the matter was taken up in the National Security Council, which allowed the release of only four of the NDF consultants. Earlier this week, government and the MILF signed a new pact to protect civilians in armed conflict areas, paving the way to resuming formal talks. Chief government negotiator Rafael Seguis said the negotiation could resume before December. Talks between government and the MILF were stalled in August 2008 after rogue MILF units attacked areas in Mindanao over the Supreme Court’s junking of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain. - GMANews.TV