Libya fields 3 more peace monitors in C. Mindanao

COTABATO CITY – The Libyan government has designated three more peace monitors in the international monitoring team (IMT) to maximize its enforcement of the ceasefire between the Armed Forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MILF website, www.luwaran.com, identified the three new IMT members as Col. Guima Marash of the Libyan Navy, and his compatriots, government political officers Jamal Alhamadon and Salah Aburziza.

Libya now has seven representatives to the IMT, which has been helping oversee the ceasefire in Central Mindanao and neighboring regions where MILF forces are scattered.

The team is composed of policemen, soldiers and sailors from Malaysia, Brunei and Libya, and a rehabilitation expert from Japan.

Efforts are now underway to allow the inclusion of representatives of Canada, Sweden, the United States and the European Union in the IMT.

The IMT is functioning in coordination with the joint ceasefire committee of the government and MILF.

The IMT and the joint ceasefire committee have also involved non-government organizations, religious leaders and barangay officials in monitoring the ceasefire through the community-based Joint Monitoring Action Teams (JMATs).

The military and the MILF jointly inaugurated last Wednesday a P1-million building for the JMAT in Barangay Kuloy, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

The seven-room JMAT building, built by the Army’s 54th Engineering Brigade, will also house representatives of the military, the MILF, and the joint ceasefire committee to prevent undue hostilities in the area.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who led military officials and MILF representatives in inaugurating the building, said he is certain the local JMAT would enhance the ceasefire in Shariff Aguak town where Moro guerrillas and paramilitary forces figured in bloody encounters last year.

Gen. Rodolfo Obaniana, chief of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command; Gen. Raymundo Ferrer of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division; Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea, chairman of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities; and his MILF counterpart, Von Al-Haq, also witnessed the inauguration.

"We can now see light at the end of the tunnel. We need to continue the cooperation between the government, the MILF and the countries helping in the Mindanao peace process," Esperon said.

Representatives of the IMT, particularly those from Brunei, will help oversee the JMAT operation in Barangay Kuloy.

The JMAT building stands in an open field separating territories occupied by the MILF and patches of land where there are military and militia detachments.

Esperon said he is confident that the JMAT, which has its own water and electrical systems and communication facilities, will prevent a repeat of the hostilities that erupted there last year.

"There is no conflict we cannot solve through peaceful dialogues, as long as both sides agree to resolve misunderstandings the diplomatic way. The ceasefire is holding; let us help each other sustain the momentum," he said.