By Rosemarie Francisco
MANILA | Sun Oct 7, 2012 2:40am EDT
(Reuters) - The Philippine government and Muslim rebels have agreed a peace deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, President Benigno Aquino said on Sunday, paving the way for a political and economic revival of the country's troubled south.
The agreement sets in train a roadmap to create a new Bangsamoro autonomous region in Muslim-dominated areas of the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country before the end of Aquino's term in 2016. Bangsamoro refers to Muslim and non-Islamic minority people in the southern Philippines.
Expectations are high that after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, both the government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group will work side-by-side to realize the promises contained in the agreement, to be signed on October 15 in Manila and witnessed by Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The two sides reached the deal for the resource-rich region during talks in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
"This agreement creates a new political entity and it deserves a name that symbolizes and honors the struggles of our forebears in Mindanao and celebrates the history and character of that part of our nation. That name will be Bangsamoro," Aquino announced via a live broadcast from the presidential palace.
"This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices. It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past," said Aquino, surrounded by his cabinet ministers.
While obstacles still lie ahead, the deal signals a major breakthrough in trust between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatists, who have long viewed Manila's motives in the talks with suspicion.
Zainuddin Malang, executive director of the Mindanao Human Rights Action Cente, a civil society group monitoring an existing truce in the region says the two sides must take extra caution in their next steps.
"This agreement is merely an opportunity to end the conflict. The actual end of the conflict can only come from its successful implementation. We can only hope this agreement won't suffer the fate of prior agreements," Malang said.
"What is very important here is that we have a president who has so much political capital, backing the framework agreement, so the chances are higher to end the conflict."
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