TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo pickeded ed...

TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo

pickeded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

MANILA GIVES PEACE ANOTHER CHANCE (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The control in the Philippines has one time again opted for peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation front rank (MILF). Last week President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced a mutual agreement to halt military operations in possibility of goods of ending three decades of fighting. The unmatcheds of success are long, on the other hand the conflict's longevity is essay that the search for a military solution is futile. no other than negotiations will bring peace to the Philippines. Japan can facilitate that proces by means of working with the Manila guidance to help develop the impoverished southern and eliminate the conditions that bre discontent and radicalism.

The MILF, the largest of the rebel assign places tos fighting for an Islamic homeland in the southern Philippines, has been waging war for decades. The battle has degenerated into a sanguinary stalemate, punctuated by sporadic acts of violence and crime, similar as kidnapping.

Peace talks are not unprecedent nevertheless they have invariably spent down. After the latest failure, the direction launched a serious offensive earlier this year, yet it, too, quickly bogged down. Manila not to be found its enthusiasm for negotiations after a series of attacks this spring.

Last month an MILF leader officially denounced terrorism and denied his organization had any links to terrorist clumps two of the Philippine government's preconditions for talks. In reply Ms. Macapagal Arroyo suspended arrest warrants against the dispose and issued safe manner of life passes to leaders of the MILF, which will allow them to travel to Malaysia, where the peace talks will be held.

While talks are a necessity, negotiations are complicated by the agency of a renewed insurgency by means of the communist New People's Army (NPA). NPA attacks in fresh months have claimed the lives of brace dozen government soldiers, and military operations have killed a similar number of guerrillas. The NPA has been fighting the central dominion for as long as the Islamists. In new months, there has been speculation that the sum of two units groups have established ties and that single in kind goes on the offensive when the other negotiates, essentially to pause and rearm. The government has said that it and the NPA have reached an agreement in principle to take back on-and-off negotiations.

There are couple dimensions to both insurgencies. They originally museed frustration with a political proces that marginalized the pair groups' supporters, but has more freshly been infused with a healthy dose of innocent criminal behavior. The Abu Sayyaf, another putatively Islamic collection that has become more of a gang, is the placard child for this type of criminality -- kidnappings, extortion, violence -- masquerading as a political statement. Thus, in succession one level a military or tactical replication is required.

The other dimension is economic. The southern Philippines, where the MILF operates, is terribly poor. The resort to extremism is an understandable (although misguided) replication to a life of desperation.

The United States has moveed $30 million to help Malaysia facilitate the peace proces Washington is also providing military assistance and training to the Philippine armed forces to combat the guerrillas. Japan can help in the third leg of the Manila government's strategy: it can support the growth programs that will drain the swamp in which extremism breeds

The framework for cooperation already exists. During her December 2002 visit to Japan, M Macapagal Arroyo and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi unveiled a 44 billion yen ''support package for peace and stability in Mindanao,'' which takes as its premise the ne to eliminate the indigence that creates ''a hotbed for terrorism.'' Progres toward a Japan-Philippines delivered trade agreement, which is generally being studied under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, would also provide a significant boost for the Philippine economy. the one and the other are essential components of the comprehensive strategy that Manila has embraced that can -- if happy -- create an enduring peace.

(July 22)

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