Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia said Thursday its team of peacekeepers was to remain on troubled Mindanao island in the southern Philippines for another three months to monitor peace negotiations between Manila and rebel Muslim separatists. The announcement comes in the wake of a recent outbreak of fighting between Philippine government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which killed at least 40 civilians and displaced more than 340,000.
Malaysia acceded to a request by the Philippine government to extend the peacekeepers' mandate, Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said.
"Malaysia hopes that both parties will strengthen their belief that peace can only be obtained through negotiations," Rais was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.
"Continued violence would only cause hardship and shall not resolve the key problems or issues in question," he said.
The Malaysian team has been in the southern region of Mindanao since 2004 as part of the International Monitoring Team supported by officers from several other countries.
Malaysia began a staged withdrawal of its 40 peacekeepers from Mindanao in April because of frustration over the slow pace of negotiations. But the government said earlier this month it would keep at least 12 officers in the team.
Malaysia for the past seven years played the role of facilitator in negotiations between Manila and the MILF.
Earlier this month, the Philippine Supreme Court stopped the signing of a controversial peace deal that would have expanded an existing Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao following objections by Christian politicians who claim they were not consulted on the deal.
The 11,000-strong MILF has been fighting for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in Mindanao since 1978. It agreed to hold peace talks with the government in 1997 in hopes of ending the violent separatist struggle which has claimed thousands of lives.
