GPH-CCCH praise IMT for reducing AFP-BIAF clashes as MILF-CCCH filed complaints of uncoordinated AFP deployment

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Kato’s departure from MILF, emergence of BIFF threaten outcome of peace talks

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MILF peace panel chief admits Kumander Kato a threat to negotiations

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 11, 2011—Mohaqher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has admitted that Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, who broke away from the mainstream MILF, is a problem to the peace negotiations which resumed last Wednesday (Feb. 9) after two years of being stalled.
                Kato, commander of the 105th Base Command of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), armed wing of the MILF, formally broke away from the MILF last week over issues that such as the alleged revisionist policy the MILF leadership under Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim and the abandonment of the 
Front’s original stance of independence.
                Kato, in his early 70s, joined the MILF in 1993 five years after the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim returned from Pakistan in 1987. He led the attack in Cotabato in August 2008 after the Supreme Court declared as 
unconstitutional the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which the two previous peace panels hammered out after years of negotiations.
                He allegedly had organized the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). 
                Kato’s departure from under the MILF and organizing another armed group raises serious concerns in the MILF’s ability to deliver on any commitment that it will be able to negotiate with the government, said 
government chief peace negotiator Marvic Leonen.
                It will also “endanger the ceasefire mechanisms” of both the government and the MILF, he added.
                But Iqbal said: “To be frank with all of you here, Kato is indeed a problem, I repeat, but if we are truthful to ourselves and to the facts surrounding why he had been a problem is because of the betrayal of the previous 
administration (not its peace panel) in not signing the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) on August 5, 2008.”
                Iqbal said in his opening statement in the resumption of peace negotiations in Malaysia last Wednesday (Feb. 9) entitled “Every step brings us closer to our destination,” a copy of which was obtained by this reporter, that Kato was one of the BIAF commanders “who do not believe in negotiation.”
                “But we managed to let him toe the line for so long, until the present Philippine dispensation came into power.  Ramadan passed, the month of October passed, November passed, December passed, but it was only on January 13 when the two peace panels finally met.  This is not blaming anyone, but I am just highlighting here that these delays are giving him more ammunition to prove his thesis that he is right, that negotiation is useless, because the government is not sincere. It is very difficult to argue with those who in the first place take an opposite view right at the start,” he said.
                President Aquino had promised at the start of his administration that he will re-start the peace negotiations right after the Ramadan 2010, which started on August 11, 2010 and ended on September 9, 2010. (Bong D. Fabe)

GPH-MILF renew IMT, AHJAG mandate for 12 months

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Peace panels urged to address ‘gaps’ for negotiations’ positive result

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.

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)

‘Eternal’ Muslim-Christian war feared if peace talks fail

CAGAYAN DE ORO City, Jan. 5, 2011—The chairperson of a Muslim non-government organization warned Wednesday of an “eternal” Muslim-Christian war in Mindanao if the Aquino administration fails to achieve a final peace settlement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Islamic Movement for Electoral Reform and Good Government (IMERGG) founding chairperson Hadji Abdullah “Lax” Dalidig also said that the Aquino administration should show sincerity in negotiating peace with the MILF to prevent a “third force” from taking advantage of the lull in the negotiations and sow chaos in Mindanao.

“President Aquino must show sincerity in achieving lasting peace with the MILF by fast tracking the peace negotiations. His government must do something to convince the people of the government’s sincerity to prevent a third force from fueling another all-out war in Mindanao. I fear that once war erupts, it will be an unending, eternal war that might degenerate into a religious Muslim-Christian war,” he told TIGBALITA.

Dalidig disclosed that there are some “military hawks and other bad elements” who are just waiting for the talks to fail so that they can sow chaos and ignite another all-out war in Mindanao.

He said that he has documentary evidence to prove that not all government officials are in favor of a political settlement with the MILF.

“These government officials are the ones pulling the strings of several military hawks to create a scenario that will enflame the Bangsamoro people to rise against the government for their own ends. There is something here in Mindanao that they want so much that they will try to get it no matter the cost,” he said.

He, however, said he will present these documentary evidences in his possession in the proper time.

With the GRP-MILF negotiations still stalled because of the unresolved issue on facilitation, people are beginning to lose hope in the Aquino administration to sign a final peace agreement with the Moro front.

Malacañang had asked the negotiations’ broker Malaysia to replace Datuk Othman bin Abd’Razak as facilitator because he is allegedly in favor of the MILF.

The MILF has been fighting the government for decades to establish a self-rule Muslim state in Mindanao.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF remain stalled since August 2008 following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

Nevertheless, efforts are being undertaken by both sides to revive the talks.

A final peace deal will touch the issues of autonomy and the civil settlement of the rebel group's some 11,800-strong fighters.

Dalidig said the Bangsamoro nation is now disillusioned with the way the Aquino administration is handling the peace talks.

He said the convergence of up to 50,000 Muslims in Marawi City last November 22, 2010 to ventilate their disillusionment with the government is just the tip of the iceberg.

The November Muslim convergence in Marawi was initiated by the Bangsamoro Solidarity Action for Peace and Justice, a multi-sectoral alliance of Muslim mass-based organizations in the Lanao provinces.

In that rally, Aquino was called a liar by the Muslims for his failure to deliver on his promise to convene the peace negotiations after the Ramadhan 2010.

It was also during the November convergence that the Ranao Manifesto was drawn up in which the MILF was urged to “withdraw from the peace negotiations with the GRP and revert to the original aspiration and stand on which the Bangsamoro liberation movement was founded more than four decades ago: The political independence of the Bangsamoro nation from the Philippine state.” (Bong D. Fabe)