Bush peace broker visits RP for talks

United States President George W. Bush’s special peace envoy was in Manila recently as part of a team under the aegis of the US Institute for Peace (USIP) to serve as "facilitators" of the Philippine government’s peace talks with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni was picked by Bush as his special envoy to pursue a road map for peace in the Middle East. This year Zinni helped broker peace in Aceh, Indonesia.

Zinni, a veteran of the Vietnam War, rose to become a general and the sixth commander-in-chief of the US Central Command, with jurisdiction over US military operations from Africa to Central Asia.

He is part of USIP’s team of "facilitators," which includes former Ambassador to Manila Richard Murphy as well as USIP executive vice president Harriet Hentges and Eugene Martin, former deputy chief of mission in Manila.

Other members of the team include former US Ambassadors to Manila Nicholas Platt, Stephen Bosworth and Frank Wisner, and Chester Crocker, a former assistant secretary of state.

The USIP, which Murphy said is federally funded but not federally controlled, was asked by the US State Department to help in the Philippine peace process shortly after President Arroyo’s state visit this year to the US.

The institute, according to a statement released yesterday by the US embassy in Manila, is an independent, nonpartisan organization created and funded by the US Congress to promote peaceful resolution of international conflicts.

"The institute agreed to play this facilitating role in an unofficial capacity. In order to do so, it has organized a working group of senior retired diplomats and specialists in conflict resolution to oversee its activities related to the peace process," the embassy said.

Four members of this working group — Murphy, Zinni, Hentges, and Martin — were in Manila until yesterday to meet with "a wide range of parties concerned prior to anticipated talks between Philippine government officials and representatives of the MILF in Kuala Lumpur," the embassy said.

The USIP delegation met with the President, members of the government negotiating panel, leaders of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, senior police and military officials, senators and congressmen, and civil society and religious representatives.

The institute’s working group has been consulting with the parties concerned "in order to assess its most effective role in helping the peace process move forward," the embassy said, adding that the USIP "plans to continue its facilitation when formal peace talks begin in Kuala Lumpur in the near future."

The USIP team’s arrival in Manila is a "boost to the government’s desire to have peace with the MILF," Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday.

Pimentel said the USIP team has the blessings of Bush, who earlier committed $30 million to finance development programs in Mindanao if a peace pact is signed.

"Definitely the Bush administration, through the USIP, will help in funding the development programs in Mindanao. I had an hour’s meeting with them, headed by Murphy, and they told me the US is interested in brokering peace in Mindanao," Pimentel said.

Zinni, however, left the country yesterday and was not at the meeting with Pimentel.

Pimentel said the institute’s team is in a much better position to determine whether they can proceed to broker peace between the government and the MILF in Mindanao without insulting Malaysia.

"They expressed some apprehension that the peace talks in Kuala Lumpur are not yet starting. They want to see that through, they want to get the talks started as soon as possible," he said.

Pimentel added that the team members "really want to find out how they can get into the picture without antagonizing Malaysia. Of course, that is a matter within their own competence, so I responded that probably that matter is best for them to determine" on their own. — Jose Rodel Clapano