CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 10, 2011—Two grassroots organizations that are closely “accompanying” the peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) strongly urged both peace negotiating panels to address gaps in past negotiations for the present talks to bear positive result.
“As a grassroots peace and solidarity movement that had been accompanying the peace process, we genuinely believe that the GRP-MILF peace talks will finally bear fruit during the watch of the Aquino administration. We are however very firm in our position that it can only succeed if it bears to mind the lessons of the past and will seriously address the gaps that led to the botching of the memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD),” the International Solidarity Conference on Mindanao (ISCM) and the Mindanao Solidarity Network (MSN) said in a joint press statement emailed to this reporter.
The already 13-year-old peace negotiations between the government and the MILF had been stalled since August 2008 after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the MOA-AD because both panels allegedly failed in consulting stakeholders.
Following the SC’s decision, armed conflict ensued between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), the armed wing of the MILF, in the provinces of Cotabato and Lanao del Norte, where BIAF Base Commanders Amerel Umbra Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar alias Kumander Bravo hold sway, respectively.
“The peace panels cannot simply resume negotiations and revert back to the old habits of doing things, so to speak,” citing that the peace process is in its “crucial stage” as the negotiators are up for a tough job of “hammering a negotiated political settlement that put a final closure to the lingering armed conflict in Mindanao,” they said.
ISCM was formed in March 2007 by 102 local and 48 international peace organizations, such as the Peace Builders Community, Mindanao Peoples Caucus, Initiatives for International Dialogue and the San Diego-based Institute
for Justice and Peace, among others.
for Justice and Peace, among others.
The MSN, on the other hand, is composed of the Gaston Z. Ortega Foundation and Balay Rehabilitation Center among other Manila-based organizations advocating peace for Mindanao.
The Mindanao-based ISCM and the Manila-based MSN recommended to both peace negotiating panels four “immediate concerns” that will address these gaps and put a “final closure” to the conflict.
First of these recommendations is the “establishment of a clear-cut, programmatic and sustained mechanism for continuing consultation within all branches of government, local government units and across all sectors, gender, tribes and regions.”
ISCM and MSN said that to avoid “politicians with vested interest” recycling their argument in striking down the MOA-AD such as lack of consultations with stakeholders in challenging a forthcoming peace agreement, “it is incumbent upon the government peace panel and the OPAPP [Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process] to demonstrate visible compliance of such requirement.”
“Considering the expressed opposition of known political leaders in Congress and local government units, we urge the government peace panel and OPAPP to develop institutional partnerships with the other branches of government and the LGUs in order to consolidate the position of the Philippine government,” both groups said.
Second, they recommended that the government and the MILF set up a “mechanism that will keep the public, especially the grassroots communities, regularly informed on the status and progress of the negotiation.”
“The need to keep the public informed and aware of what is happening in the peace talks is crucial in generating a massive public support to the peace process. Keeping the people informed and keeping sensitive information confidential are not mutually exclusive and can readily go together,” they said.
Past peace negotiators have claimed they could not reveal many things in the negotiation, saying they were “sensitive” matters which could even derail the talks if prematurely released to the public.
But for ISCM and MSN, this claim can easily be handled strategically and objectively if both panels “develop a joint communication strategy that can effectively inform and educate people on what is happening on each and every round of talks.”
“We strongly believe that both parties have the necessary technology, skills and expertise to fulfill this requirement. Let it also be stressed here that the peace networks all over the country including the international community are very much willing to help the peace panels accomplish this task,” they added.
Third, both peace networks urged both panels to “address the rido cases.”
Rido is a Maranao term to described family or clan feuds, which is characterized by sporadic outbursts of retaliatory violence between families and kinship groups, as well as between communities. It usually occur in areas where the government or a central authority is weak as well as in areas where there is a perceived lack of justice and security.
Last January alone, more than 2,000 families of civilians in Central Mindanao were displaced because of clan war.
“We urge the peace panels to come up with measures that will minimize, if not totally eradicate, this menace that caused displacement, deaths and destruction in many Bangsamoro communities,” ISCM and MSN said.
“If both panels have successfully silenced the guns of soldiers and rebels alike through a working ceasefire agreement, we see no reason why they could not jointly work together to silence the guns of warring families and clans especially those directly involving MILF members,” they added.
And fourth, the two big peace networks reiterated the need for the government to “appoint a full time chair of the ceasefire committee and providing adequate logistical support to the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and other formal mechanisms.”
“Finally, we call on our political leaders to give the necessary support to the peace panels so that they will succeed in accomplishing the heavy and difficult task of coming up with a negotiated political settlement. Let us contribute in whatever way we can in renewing the confidence and support of our people in the peace process,” they said.
The MILF has been fighting for an independent Muslim homeland on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao since the 1970s. The conflict has claimed 150,000 lives so far, according to the government. (Bong D. Fabe)
No comments:
Post a Comment