The Philippine government and communist rebels resumed peace talks near Oslo Tuesday, more than six years after the last round broke down, but prospects for progress remained uncertain after the arrest hours earlier of a top guerilla leader.
"Dialogue is not a sign of weakness. It is a strategy of the brave. It opens doors," Norway's deputy foreign minister Espen Barth Eide told delegates and reporters in opening comments Tuesday at a Nesbru hotel overlooking the icy Oslo fjord.
The two sides finally agreed last month to talks, the first since 2004, in a bid to end the decades-old rebellion which has claimed thousands of lives.
President Benigno Aquino's administration expressed hopes that the festering conflict would be over by 2014, but the fact that fighting has persisted is a bad sign for the already slow-moving peace process.
Observers have meanwhile cautioned that the seven days of closed-door negotiations between the representatives from Manila and the National Democratic Front (NDF) — the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) — probably will not lead to an immediate breakthrough.
Only hours before the talks began, the Philippine army announced the capture of a senior guerilla leader, Alan Jasminez, a central committee member of the CPP.
He will stand trial for rebellion, armed forces chief of staff General Ricardo David said, while a police statement said he also faced 13 murder charges.
The NDF have demanded his immediate release, pointing out that he was a negotiation consultant and warning that his arrest could disrupt the talks.
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