ZAMBOANGA CITY, 10 June 2007 — Muslim guerrilla leaders and military field commanders in the southern Philippines swapped not gunfire but ideas in a welcome development unimaginable a few years ago.
“It is happening,” said Malaysian Lt. General Ismael Khan, chief of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), after the combatants from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines exchanged not only views on the peace process, but also mobile phone numbers to maintain contact.
Encouraged by the truce monitors, the dialogue was part of efforts to sustain the fragile truce and cooperate in stopping kidnap-for-ransom activities in Muslim areas on the southern island of Mindanao.
Khan described the round-table discussion at the Pacific Heights Hotel in Cotabato as formal but sometimes punctuated by jokes between the two groups. He said the meeting was aimed primarily at establishing good rapport between ground leaders of the two groups.
“We explain to them how the cease-fire mechanism works on the ground,” he said.
He said it was also aimed at strengthening cease-fire mechanisms to protect the peace process.
“It is only through dialogues that we can prevent shooting war,” Khan said.
The MILF, the largest of four Muslim rebel groups in the south, has been negotiating to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has cost more than 120,000 lives.
Both sides signed a truce in 2003 but it had always been considered fragile because of violence occurring between the two sides every now and then.
The skirmishes have on several occasions threatened to derail the peace process with the MILF and the government accusing each other of insincerity.
Since September 2006, Malaysian-brokered talks have been stalled over the size and wealth of the proposed ancestral homeland for about 3 million Muslims.
‘Breakthrough’
Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea, head of the government’s cease-fire panel, described the meeting as “a breakthrough in our efforts to find peace in the south.”
“These people were enemies on the battlefield, but they were here in friendly discussions to make each other understand their respective positions in the peace talks.”
Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, chief of the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said “there should be more meetings like this.”
“It will help the rebels understand the mandate of the military while we in the army would understand the guerillas,” he said.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebels’ chief peace negotiator, said the meeting was very timely because delays in resuming talks had affected MILF morale and its confidence in the peace process.
“When there’s a delay in the negotiations, the perception of our people is that there could be problems in the talks,” Iqbal told Reuters in an interview, adding that peace advocacy activities helped reassure Muslims that talks are still moving.
Iqbal said the MILF was ready to resume exploratory talks with the government in Kuala Lumpur after scheduled May 1-2 meetings were postponed at Manila’s request due to elections.
“The ball’s in the hands of the government,” he said.
‘A Step Long Awaited’
Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, welcomed the IMT’s initiative to bring together military and rebel leaders to a discussion on how to prevent hostilities.
He described the event as “a step long-awaited by peace advocates in Mindanao.”
“We looked at it as a venue to exchange ideas and actions that would prevent misunderstanding and shooting and develop trust among army and MILF field commanders,” he said.
Gurrea said he hoped the discussions would have a positive result and help the peace process move forward.
“With this, hopefully we can have a paradigm shift and see our field commanders and MILF officials trading text messages and not mortars or bullets,” he said.
Khan said the event was only the beginning of more such discussions.
The 60-man IMT is composed of representatives from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya, Indonesia, and Japan.
Canada and Austria have also expressed willingness to send peace observers to contribute in the efforts to bring peace to the southern Philippines.
