The last batch of Malaysian peacekeepers flew out of the southern Philippines yesterday, throwing into doubt prospects of a fast resumption of peace talks between Manila and Muslim rebels.
The 12 International Monitoring Team members boarded a military cargo plane for Kuala Lumpur from the southern island of Mindanao. Twenty-one Malaysian soldiers and policemen had left in May.
“Its nice to go home but leaving behind friends is hard. We hope that we can come back again in a different capacity,” said mission head First Admiral Pahlawan Amzah bin Sulaiman before departing.
“I hope that the Philippine government and MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] can resume the peace talks soon,” he said.
BULK
The Malaysians have made up the bulk of the small international monitoring team which has overseen a 2003 ceasefire between the Philippine government and the separatist MILF.
Members from Brunei, Libya and Japan will continue with their work, although with barely two dozen covering the south, it is unlikely they will be effective, officials have said.
Malaysia has said it was pulling out its troops because of a lack of progress in the peace talks, which have been suspended since Philippine President Gloria Arroyo ordered a massive assault on the rebels in August.
BREAKDOWN
A fresh breakdown in talks came after MILF fighters staged a series of coordinated, deadly attacks across several towns and provinces on Mindanao island that left hundreds of thousands displaced and dozens dead.
The attacks came shortly after the Supreme Court issued an injunction against a proposed deal that would have given the rebels control over 700 towns and territories across Mindanao. It subsequently ruled the deal was unconstitutional.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which tracks conflicts worldwide, has said that while the fighting will not lead to an all-out war covering the whole of Mindanao, it does not see both sides returning to the table for talks anytime soon.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home