PHILIPPINE PEACE DEAL 'MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED'

Ankara, 17 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/17 February 2014 (MINA) – ‘Peace process between government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front most likely to succeed’, Third Party Monitoring Team member tells Anadolu Agency as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

A Foreign peace monitoring team on Monday arrived in Philippines to observe the implementation of a peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), aimed at ending four decades of deadly conflict in the south.

The Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT), consisting of five members and led by Alistair MacDonald – European Union’s Ambassador to Cambodia – will work on the field for two weeks and present a report to a peace panel of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The monitoring team’s report on the implementation of the peace deal – which was announced in January 2014 between the government and MILF – will be binding for both sides, according to the agreement.

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Speaking to Anadolu Agency, before leaving for the Philippines, Huseyin Oruc, a member of TPMT and deputy chairman of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) – a Turkish NGO – said, “the peace process between the government and the MILF is most likely to succeed.”

“The process is going mostly well despite some minor problems that we obsereved in our previous visit in December. There are some other groups who oppose the peace deal, but MILF – the most powerful Muslim group on the ground– and the Philippine government insist on the deal being successful,” said Oruc.

He said the President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino wants to secure a final peace settlement before leaving office in mid-2016 and that his determination for a resolution within this timeframe is an “advantage for achieving peace.”

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The peace agreement gives Muslims in the south of the Philippines significant autonomy in exchange for ending more than 40 years of violence, which has seen nearly 120 thousand killed and forced two million people to leave their homes.

As part of the agreement, the new autonomous region in Mindanao will be called Bangsamoro and Muslims will have far-reaching authority. The Muslims of Mindanao hope that the agreement would give them new economic, social and political rights by 2016.

Oruc said every two months the monitoring team will observe in the field and will report back on how the peace deal is implemented by both sides. “The frequency of these visits might be increased if it is required,” Oruc added.

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Since 1970s, the MILF has supported a rebellion aimed at achieving independence, and offering a better life for the country’s Muslim minority in the south. The Philippine government agreed to grant amnesty to those who committed rebellion-related offences as part of the peace deal.

Despite the peace deal between the government and the main rebel group, some of the smaller rebel factions appear determined to fight on. The Philippine army is now taking a hard line against those separatists groups who oppose the deal. (T/P09/E01).

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).