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ZAMBOANGA CITY—Civil-society groups in this city have
urged local residents and local government leaders to be
active in the peace process between the government and
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), amid the snag
in the negotiation and recent phased pullout of the
Malaysian-led peacekeeping forces in
Mindanao.
In a statement, the group composed of Peace Advocates
Zamboanga, Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for
Peace, Movement for Better Zamboanga, the Ateneo de
Zamboanga University (ADZU) and the Commission on Human
Rights regional office, centered its concern over the
volatile situation on the ground now that there is no
third party left to monitor the cease-fire agreement
between the government and the MILF.
“The presence of IMT...had afforded some hope of possible
conciliation between the two [the government and the
MILF]. With the pullout of IMT troops, the maintenance
of the cease-fire maybe impaired,” the group said.
The call came two days after military and MILF rebels engaged
in a sporadic firefight on Thursday in Basilan. Both
parties accused each other of violating the
five-year-old cease-fire agreement.
The civil-society groups noted that the tension on the ground
is increasing although no casualties have been reported.
“We recognize the effort of the IMT in reducing the number of
firefights in
Mindanao,” the group said.
Malaysia
has agreed to lead the multinational cease-fire
monitoring group years after the government and the MILF
signed the truce agreement, which is seen as an
essential enabling condition toward crafting a peace
deal.
But
Malaysia recently decided not to extend the tour of duty
of its peace-keeping force in Mindanao beyond August 31
because of the slow pace of the 11-year-old negotiation
it has been hosting in Kuala Lumpur.
The peace negotiations are stalled over the issue of
ancestral domain because the government insists that the
process should be within the ambit of Constitution while
the MILF is against the constitutional precondition.
The withdrawal of Malaysian peace keepers started two weeks
ago. Two military transport planes airlifted 28 out of
the 41 Malaysian soldiers in the cities of
Davao,
General Santos, Cotabato and Zamboanga.
To make up for the Malaysians’ withdrawal, the government has
asked
Libya,
which is also part of the 60-member IMT, to take over
the task of leading the cease-fire monitoring group.
But the MILF said this has yet to be discussed and mutually
agreed upon by both parties.
“We appeal to the government and the MILF to continue with
their peacekeeping actions, adhere to the primacy of the
peace process, respect their existing agreements and
commitments toward harmony, and pursue relentlessly the
peace process in order to come up with a final peace
agreement,” the group said. |
