Rebels in their dotage

WHEN negotiators sat down together in Oslo this week in an effort to end the Philippines’ 47-year-old communist insurgency, they expressed the hope that a peace deal could be wrapped up within a year. That is optimistic: the two sides have been talking on-and-off for 30 years, without success. Their jerky progress towards the negotiating table in recent weeks is an ominous portent.

The Philippines’ new president, Rodrigo Duterte, had promised to resume talks during his election campaign, and declared a unilateral ceasefire within a month of his inauguration in late June. But the communists failed to reciprocate immediately. Instead, communist guerrillas ambushed some government militiamen in the southern Philippines, killing one and wounding four. Mr Duterte promptly called off the truce, just before the communists declared their own ceasefire, which was subsequently rescinded. It was only after the government released some insurgents, and the communists reciprocated, that the two sides reinstated the ceasefires, allowing the talks to go ahead.