COTABATO CITY – Ambassadors from the European Union called yesterday for the resumption of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Led by EU envoy Alistair McDonald, Ambassadors Heikki Hannikainen of Finland, Christian Ludwig Weber-Lortsch of Germany, Rubens Fedele of Italy, Valeriu Gheorghe of Romania, Luis Arias of Spain, and Peter Beckingham of the United Kingdom toured evacuation centers in Maguindanao to assess the delivery of EU relief assistance.
McDonald said they wanted to see the real situation in conflict-stricken areas in Central Mindanao.
“Our visit here shows that the outside world cares for these people,” he told reporters.
The EU has been helping sustain the relief aid of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Food Program in troubled areas in Maguindanao and surrounding provinces.
Records obtained from concerned agencies of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao showed that as of last week, 574,821 people have been displaced by conflicts in the six provinces comprising the region.
Many of them were forced to evacuate to safer grounds to escape marauding bands of rogue MILF rebels.
McDonald and the EU envoys discussed with ARMM officials the prospects of the Mindanao peace process and nagging security problems.
In a message to the EU ambassadors, ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan expressed appreciation for the continuing support of the international community to the peace process and the relief assistance to thousands of evacuees in Maguindanao and adjoining provinces.
“We join the call of world leaders to bring the peace process back on track,” Ampatuan said.
The EU presidency was represented in McDonald’s team by French chargé d’affaires Didier Ortolland.
Ortolland’s colleagues from the Austrian, Czech, Dutch, Greek and Swedish embassies were also with McDonald’s group, along with Stephen Anderson of the World Food Program, and representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development led by Undersecretary Celia Yangco.
Last October, the European Commission agreed to provide seven million euros (approximately P440 million at current exchange rates) to help civilian victims of the conflict in Mindanao.
The assistance is being used to cover emergency food distribution, drinking water and additional sanitation facilities, non-food relief items, basic shelter assistance, health care and psychosocial support, and emergency support for livelihood rehabilitation and protection.