BY VICTOR REYES

THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front has told the visiting chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces that government is not interested in forging a peace agreement with the group but only in maintaining the cease-fire in the South.

"That is what I told him (Gen. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz bin Zainal), that they (government) are only interested in the cease-fire," Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator who is also chairman of the MILF committee on information, said in a phone interview yesterday.

"That is a correct statement (government insincerity)... They are delaying the peace talks while trying to salvage the cease-fire," he added.

He said Aziz met with MILF officials for at least two hours Saturday at the MILF peace panel office in Shariff Kabunsuan.

The general, he said, is in the country principally to iron out details of the withdrawal of the Malaysian members in the International Monitoring Team which is tasked to monitor the implementation of the cease-fire agreement forged in 2003.

Iqbal said Aziz did not react to his statement. "He didn't say anything, they are supposed to be a neutral group," he said.

Iqbal said the government has been sitting on the issue of ancestral domain. He said the Arroyo administration has yet to act on a draft proposal on the substantive agenda. The draft, he added, has been with government since February.

Aziz was accompanied in the meeting by Maj. Gen. Datuk Mat Yassin bin Mat Daud, IMT chief; Dato Zamzamin bin Hashim, deputy director general of the Research Department of the Malaysian Prime Minister's Office; and Major Gen. Dato Mokhtar bin Parmon, among others.

Other MILF officials in the meeting were Sammy Al-Mansoor, chief of staff; lawyers Michael Mastura and Lanang Alu, senior members of the MILF peace panel; and members of the General Staff of the MILF's Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.

Mastura rejected a government proposal to invite other countries to join the IMT which is led by Malaysia which is also brokering the peace negotiations between government and the MILF.

"This cannot be done simply by press statement or even by direct communication between the MILF and GRP negotiators," he said adding that involving other countries in the IMT should be mutually decided upon during formal peace negotiations.

The Malaysian peace monitors are due to pull out in September as Kuala Lumpur has decided not to renew their mandate.

The IMT, composed also of representatives from Libya, Brunei and Japan, arrived in Mindanao in 2004. Its primary task is to oversee the standing ceasefire agreement prior to the possible signing of a peace accord.

Last week, Aziz met with AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and government chief negotiator Rodolfo Garcia.