Peace advocates tackle Midsayap

COTABATO CITY – Peace advocates and representatives of cause-oriented groups will meet today to discuss the security problem in Midsayap town in Cotabato province.

Al Senturias, Mindanao People’s Peace Movement chairman, said they will discuss the plight of thousands of evacuees from the fighting in six barangays in Midsayap on Jan. 25 to 28 and March 5 to 6.

Representatives of the Catholic community, among them missionaries of the Oblate congregation, will also join the gathering of peace advocates and officials of various non-government organizations, he added.

The peace dialogue will be held at the campus of the Southern Christian College in Midsayap town proper, some 40 kilometers north of this city.

Members of Midsayap’s multi-sectoral peace and order council, representatives of the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) ceasefire committee, the police and military will also participate in the dialogue.

Meanwhile, the MILF warned yesterday that a fragile four-year ceasefire with the government is on the verge of collapse.

In a statement posted on its website, the secessionist movement said the ceasefire may collapse due to the "military’s arrogance and defiance."

The MILF would not take the military’s repeated aggression "sitting down," read the statement.

Field reports also showed the military, instead of calming down the situation, appeared to be escalating the confrontation, the MILF said.

However, Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said in a telephone interview soldiers have started repositioning away from barangays where they clashed with the MILF.

"We guarantee the Muslim and Christian residents of Cotabato and Maguindanao that the Armed Forces supports all peaceful means of resolving security problems in these provinces," he said.

He favors the setting up of more Joint Monitoring Assistance Teams (JMATs) in critical spots in Midsayap to ensure a community-based enforcement of the ceasefire, he said.

The creation of more JMATs was agreed by the government and MILF’s joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities following the spate of encounters.

The community-based security monitoring outfits will be composed of representatives from the joint ceasefire committee, representatives from the barangay governments, and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT).

The IMT, composed of policemen and soldiers from Brunei, Malaysia, Libya and a rehabilitation expert from the Japanese government, has been helping oversee the ceasefire since 2003.

Superintendent Chino Mamburam, Midsayap police chief, said tension has waned in areas where soldiers and MILF rebels figured in fierce clashes.

However, evacuees are still adamant to return to their barangays for fear of a repeat of the hostilities, he added.

The Midsayap municipal government is now focused on the safe return of the evacuees to their barangays, Mamburam said.

Last Friday, the international donor community urged President Arroyo to push for the signing of the final peace agreement with the MILF to improve peace and order, and spur economic growth in resource-rich Mindanao.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a separatist rebellion since 1978. It signed a truce with the government n 2003, paving the way for peace talks.

However, negotiations have stalled over the MILF’s demands for economic control over claimed ancestral lands. – With AFP