PHILIPPINES, REBELS REACH AGREEMENT.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. In their first meeting in 10 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time Philippine president and a rebel leader hugged Monday and announced a settlement of a 26-year Muslim rebellion in the southern Philippines. ``We have agreed to end the war and restore peace,'' rebel leader Nur Misuari Nur Misuari is a revolutionary leader of the BangsaMoro people. His full name is Nurallaji Misuari. He completed his education through academic scholarships. During his days at the University of the Philippines he was a student activist. said after meeting President Fidel Ramos. ``This is a very momentous, very historic occasion. This will be written in the golden pages of history.'' The two leaders shook hands, embraced and went into a schoolroom for longer talks with officials from both sides. Ramos said peace in the southern Philippines would allow the government to focus on alleviating poverty. An accord in the conflict that has killed an estimated 150,000 people and impaired economic development in the south was to be signed in Manila on Sept. 2. The two leaders met in Malabang, a coastal town in Muslim-dominated Lanao del Sur Lanao del Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Its capital is Marawi City and borders Lanao del Norte to the north, Bukidnon to the east, and Maguindanao and Cotabato to the south. province, where at the height of the Muslim secession rebellion in the 1970s, government troops were accused of attacking two mosques and killing worshipers. On Monday, government troops and rebel fighters stood without weapons, their holsters empty. ``I'm happy,'' said Adz Nikabulin, a 32-year-old rebel commander. ``I think this is a miracle from God.'' In a breakthrough in June, Misuari and government negotiators agreed to a preliminary pact to end the fighting. Since then, the biggest stumbling block had been how to incorporate the heavily armed fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front National Liberation Front Title used by nationalist, usually socialist, movements in various countries since World War II. In Greece, the National Liberation Front-National Popular Liberation Army was a communist-sponsored resistance group that operated in occupied Greece into the Philippine armed forces. Officials now say they plan to integrate 5,500 of the 17,000 guerrillas into the Philippine military and an additional 1,500 into the Philippine National Police The Philippine National Police is the national police force of the Republic of the Philippines. It is both a national and a local police force in that it provides all law enforcement services throughout the Philippines. . Jobs will reportedly be provided to others. |
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