Arrival of 43 peace monitors opens new stage in MILF talks

KORONADAL CITY - A 43-man all Malaysian delegation composing the International Monitoring Team (IMT) is arriving on Saturday in the country to monitor the implementation of the cease-fire agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Rafael Seguis, foreign affairs undersecretary for special concerns, also said that another 10-man delegation from Brunei is slated to arrive on October 15 to boost the composition of the IMT.

“Other members of the Organization of Islamic Conference have also signified their intention to send cease-fire monitors at a later date,” Seguis said.

Malaysia, which has long been mediating the peace talks between the government and the MILF, and Brunei, are helping forge a final peace pact between the government and the separatist movement.

Seguis said the establishment of the IMT in Mindanao “will serve to secure the success of the peace talks toward attaining a final peace agreement with the MILF.”

The team from Kuala Lumpur—civilian government officials and military officers—will arrive in Metro Manila on a Malaysian Air Force C-130 transport plane, he said.

Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr., chief government negotiator in the peace talks with the MILF, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, and MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, will meet the Malaysian delegation at the Villamor Air Base.

Leading the team is Amb.Iskandar Sarudin of Malaysia and Maj. Gen. Dato Sulkfeli bin Mohamad Zin, head of the IMT delegation, said Seguis.

The IMT then flies to Mindanao on Sunday, to start a yearlong tour of duty.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the front is ready to resume formal negotiations with the government. The talks were stalled in March 2002.

He said the deployment of the IMT team in Mindanao is the last condition toward the resumption of formal peace negotiations, as agreed upon in the fifth round of exploratory talks last February 19 and 20 in Kuala Lumpur.

The two other main agreements forged during that meeting have been implemented. These were the dropping of criminal charges against MILF leaders and members accused of perpetrating the series of bombings in Davao City last year, and the withdrawal of government troops from Buliok Complex in Central Mindanao.

The IMT will establish offices in the cities of General Santos, Iligan, Zamboanga, Davao and Cotabato. The terms of reference that would govern its members’ action was signed earlier by Afable, Iqbal and a Malaysian representative.

Kabalu said that when formal peace talks resume, negotiations will dwell on the ticklish issue of ancestral domain. He anticipates a heated discussion on the matter.

The ancestral domain issue is the last agenda in the Government-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001. Under this aspect, both parties will try to agree on the right of the Bangsamoro, or Moro people, to the land in a bid to preserve their social and cultural heritage.

The two other items on the agenda of the Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001—on security and rehabilitation—were resolved years ago.

Both sides signed the “Implementing Guidelines on the Security Aspect of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001” on August 7, 2001 in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

On May 7, 2002, they also signed the controversial “Implementing Guidelines on the Humanitarian, Rehabilitation and Development Aspects of the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001.”

Kabalu said that if both sides finally iron out the ancestral domain issue, “at least 75 percent of the Mindanao conflict is resolved.”

“From there [agreement on the ancestral domain aspect], we [government and the MILF] could then move on to the political settlement of the problem in Mindanao,” he noted. With R. Mercene