MILF peace negotiators to visit Japan

MANILA, Philippines - The members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace negotiating panel will visit Japan from March 17 to 23, which is expected to help finalize the Mindanao peace process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced yesterday.

Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF negotiating panel, will lead the group as guests of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan.

The conflict between the government and the MILF in Mindanao has lasted for more than 40 years. The peace talks recently made substantial progress toward the realization of a final peace agreement.

In October 2012, the government and the MILF signed the framework agreement on the Mindanao peace process and agreed on the creation of a new political entity called Bangsamoro in 2016.

Japan has actively contributed to the Mindanao peace process.

Since 2006, Japan has dispatched development experts to the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and intensively implemented economic cooperation projects in conflict-affected areas that can directly benefit the grassroots communities.

Japan has been on observer status in the peace talks since participating in the International Contact Group (ICG) in 2009.

In August 2011, Japan hosted an informal meeting on the outskirts of Tokyo between President Aquino and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim.

Malaysian peace monitors

Members of the 19-man Malaysian contingent in the IMT ended yesterday their one-year enforcement of the ceasefire between the government and the MILF as part of the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division gave military farewell honors to the members of the IMT led by Gen. Abdul Rahim Yusuf of the Malaysian Royal Armed Forces at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Another 19-man Malaysia IMT led by Major Gen. Fadzil Mokhtar would arrive in Central Mindanao within 10 days.

The new IMT will perform peacekeeping missions in Mindanao until March 2014.

The outgoing Malaysian monitors were part of the 60-member original IMT, which also included military officers from Brunei, Libya and Indonesia, and civilian experts from Japan, Norway and the European Union.

The IMT has been helping monitor the ceasefire in Mindanao since 2003, just as Malaysia began helping push the government-MILF peace talks as a third party facilitator. – With Paolo Romero, John Unson