DHAKA: The difficult process of disarming Philippine Muslim rebels after a decades-long insurgency has started, negotiators said on Sunday, with the decommissioning of a first batch of firearms expected before year-end.

Philippine government and Muslim rebel negotiators started meeting in Malaysia on Saturday to discuss the disarmament process, key to ending the insurgency in the country’s south and sealing a peace deal.

The two sides have appointed three foreign experts, from Brunei, Turkey and Norway, to join an independent body that will oversee the decommissioning process, together with four local experts who are yet to be nominated.

‘Decommissioning is a delicate and difficult component of any peace settlement. It must be done effectively and sensitively,’ chief Philippine government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1617 HRS, SEP 28, 2014