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THE CEASEFIRE IS HOLDING, LET NEGOTIATIONS RESUME |
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Written by Peace Advocates
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Thursday, 21 August 2003 |
It is now a month since the July 19 bilateral ceasefire started by the Goverment of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Except for what the MILF claims are breaches of the ceasefire in Lanao Norte where a massive manhunt is ongoing for Indonesian fugitive Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, and some reported clashes in Pagalungan and Pagagawan, Maguindanao, no actual fighting has occurred on the ground and the ceasefire is generally holding. Thankfully.
We welcome this climate of peace- no matter if fragile- which has encouraged more evacuee returns in Pikit and the start of core shelter construction in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.
We are encouraged by recent moves to protect the ceasefire, among them the August 4 and 9 meetings in Cotabato City of the CCCHs (Coordinating Committees for the Cessation of Hostilities) of the GRP and MILF; the arrival of US “peace monitors” led by former US Ambassador to the Philippines Richard Murphy; and the claim of Foreign Secretary Blas Ople that Bahrain, Brunei, Bangladesh, Libya have agreed to send representatives to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) ceasefire monitoring team led by Malaysia.
We take heart from official pronouncements that the peace process is “at the end stage” prior to the resumption of the formal peace talks, and hope that the arrival of the OIC ceasefire monitors and the re-positioning of government troops on the ground will be fulfilled soonest as conditions for the take-off of the formal talks in Kuala Lumpur.
There are potential threats to the ceasefire, primarily the reported encroachment in MILF “areas or bases” of troops hunting Al-Ghozi in Lanao Norte, Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat and Kabuntalan, Maguindanao. We urge both the GRP and MILF CCCH to formulate the operational guidelines for the May 6, 2002 Joint Communique between the GRP and the MILF especially on the apprehension of criminal elements within MILF areas.
We however ask government to proceed cautiously with the massive manhunt
also because of the rising number of people displaced in Lanao, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao. We do not need another wave of evacuations in Central Mindanao and provinces in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.
The “Peace in MindaNow” network, the result of a gathering of seven Mindanao-Sulu peace networks and National Capital Region-based peace advocates in Davao City last May 13-15, offer our local networks to be tapped for the ceasefire monitoring effort.
The “Peace in MindaNow” network will also send observers from non-government organizations to the official talks in Kuala Lumpur, as some of us had done in the previous rounds of talks.
Consistent with the positions the network adopted in our May 13-15 conference, we continue to demand for an impartial and exhaustive probe of the March 4 and April 2 Davao City bombings which killed 38 and wounded nearly 200 people.
We ask government to form at the soonest the commission or any body that will probe the recent allegations of junior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and newly-resigned Army intelligence chief Gen. Victor Corpuz were involved in the Davao bombings and that top military officials had ordered the retaliatory bombings of Davao mosques soon after.
Until the public and especially the families of the victims are satisfied that justice has been served to their kin, the disturbing allegations that officials and law enforcers themselves had a hand in the bombings will undermine trust in the current administration and in a way add legitimacy to the July 27 Oakwood mutiny.
With regards to the Davao bombings, local coalitions like In-Peace Mindanao have already probed it and other bombings in Mindanao this year and have made initial conclusions. Another new grouping, the Coalition against Summary Executions or CASE, also have information about the subsequent abductions and disappearances of Moro leaders in Davao after the bombings. The analysis and recommendations of these two groups are worth considering by any official body that will probe the Davao bombings.
Since the question of lasting peace in Mindanao also involves other rebel groups, we also call on government to fast-track efforts in restarting formal talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF). The inputs of Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City civil society groups – aired during “regional peace consultations” last August 11 and 13 -
should reflect how part of Mindanao civil society stands on the draft final peace agreement that government is offering to the NDF.
Peace talks should end in peace agreements, that much we expect from the GRP-MILF and the GRP-NDF peace talks. But we repeatedly point out, peace agreements should be just and acceptable to both parties and to the people they represent. Anything less will inevitably result to unpeace in the future.
Signed:
AGONG NETWORK
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS FORUM (CSO-FORUM)
CONSORTIUM OF BANGSAMORO CIVIL SOCIETY (CBMCS)
MINDANAO PEACE ADVOCATES CONFERENCE (MPAC)
MINDANAO PEOPLES’ CAUCUS (MPC)
MINDANAO PEOPLES PEACE MOVEMENT (MPPM)
PEACE ADVOCATES ZAMBOANGA (PAZ)
MINDANAO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
INITIATIVES FOR INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE (IID)
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