Japan to provide 9.5 million dollars in rice aid to Philippines

Jan 26, 2009, 4:36 GMT

   Manila - Japan will extend 9.5 million dollars in rice aid to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the strife-torn southern Philippine region of Mindanao, a Japanese embassy statement said Monday.

   The aid will be in the form of 7,500 metric tons of rice, which will be distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) to people displaced by fighting between government troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Mindanao.

   'Japan sincerely hopes that this emergency food aid through the WFP would help in mitigating the current humanitarian crisis in Mindanao and strongly expects a ceasefire and the immediate resumption of peace talks between the government and the MILF,' the statement said.

   Intense fighting between the military and the MILF erupted in August 2008 when the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks to protest a Supreme Court decision that halted the signing of a key agreement between the government and the guerrilla group.

   More than 200 people were killed in the rebel attacks and subsequent clashes, while more than 500,000 were displaced at the height of the fighting.

   The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines since 1978, but entered into peace negotiations with the government in 1997.

   While President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo dissolved the government's team negotiating with the MILF in September 2008 following the hostilities in Mindanao, she formed a new panel last month and has ordered a resumption in the peace talks.