WB, Canada, Japan threaten aid cut to Mindanao --The Philippine Star

Canada, Japan threaten to pull aid workers from Mindanao

Friday, July 27, 2007 04:20 PM

MANILA (AFP) - Japan and Canada have threatened to pull out of vital aid projects in the southern Philippines if Manila carries out punitive operations against Muslim separatists there, officials said Friday.

President Gloria Arroyo's government has deployed more troops on Basilan island to hunt down Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members blamed for the killing of 14 marines there earlier this month.

Ten of the slain soldiers were beheaded on July 10 as they searched for a kidnapped Italian Roman Catholic priest, since freed unharmed on the neighbouring southern island of Mindanao.

"We would be disappointed if security concerns arising from a spillover of military operations in Basilan to other areas in Mindanao constrained us to temporarily curtail our aid operations," Canadian ambassador Peter Sutherland said in a letter to Manila's peace negotiating panel.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been observing a three-year truce while negotiating a peace agreement with Manila.

This has allowed wealthy nations including Japan and Canada and multilateral agencies like the World Bank to implement development projects in the south, where some of the poorest Filipino families live.

Arroyo's government confirmed receiving letters from the World Bank and the ambassadors of Japan and Canada over the escalating tensions in Basilan.

"As one of the countries that have full involvement in the Mindanao peace process, we are gravely concerned that offensive military operations could derail the ongoing peace talks and lead to a bigger armed conflict," Japanese ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki wrote.

"In case the situation worsens, Japan will have to consider temporarily pulling out its aid-related Japanese personnel from Mindanao for security reasons until there is certainty that such offensive military operations in Basilan will not spill over to other areas," the envoy warned.

World Bank Mindanao coordinator Mary Judd called for restraint, warning that "an escalation would threaten the chances of achieving a peaceful resolution to this crisis, or much worse, totally derail the ongoing peace process."

She wrote that due to the peace process, "several donor-supported programs and projects are now under implementation in Mindanao for roads and bridges, agricultural development and education, among others."

The MILF said its forces attacked the Marines because they had strayed into its territory, but has denied its forces beheaded the soldiers.

The rebels rejected a military demand to turn over those behind the attack.



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WB, Canada, Japan threaten aid cut to Mindanao

By Pia Lee-Brago

Friday, July 27, 2007

Japan, Canada and the World Bank (WB) have expressed alarm over a possible outbreak of fighting between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that could scuttle peace talks.

Canada and Japan warned they may pull out their aid workers in Mindanao if the situation worsens.

The donor countries and the World Bank, in separate letters, urged the government and the MILF to exercise restraint to save the Malaysian-brokered talks and peacefully resolve a conflict over the recent killing of 14 Marines.

“We are gravely concerned that offensive military operations could derail the ongoing peace talks,” Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki said.

“In case the situation worsens, Japan will have to consider temporarily pulling out its aid-related personnel from Mindanao for security reasons,” Yamazaki said in his letter.

Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland said his government would be “dismayed if an outbreak of hostilities were to delay or impede the ongoing peace talks.”

“We would be disappointed if security concerns... constrained us to temporarily curtail our aid operations,” Sutherland said in his letter.

“At this time, we encourage the GRP to continue to act in a restrained manner and to emphasize the importance of maintaining the peace process,” Sutherland said.

He said the Canadian government will be forced to move its aid workers out “of harm’s way” once fighting erupts.

Canada and Japan, along with the WB, are among the countries and institutions that have been providing aid and assistance to conflict areas in Mindanao.

World Bank Office of Manila’s Mindanao Coordinator May Judd said the WB supports calls for restraint to allow the peace process to go through.

“Such an escalation would threaten the chances of achieving a peaceful resolution of this crisis, much worse totally derail the ongoing peace process,” Judd said in her letter.

Judd said the WB has trust in President Arroyo’s resolve and vision for the social and economic recovery of Mindanao.

She said the WB believes Mrs. Arroyo will exert utmost efforts to preserve the gains made in Mindanao and explore all possible means to avoid an escalation of violence and allow the peace talks to continue.

Malacañang assured the international donor community of its commitment to forge a peace accord with the MILF amid the looming standoff with the rebel forces.

Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde said the government is more protective of the ongoing peace process with the MILF.

“We welcome those (statements) but they don’t have to tell us that because we are more concerned than they are. I am sure that we have to uphold the primacy of the peace process. The primacy of the peace process as the President’s policy remains,” Dureza said.

Remonde, for his part, said he also gave assurance to Ambassador Yamazaki that the “peace process will be protected at all costs.”

Remonde told Yamazaki of the government’s resolve to “account for those who committed the inhuman attack on the (14) Marines.”

The two officials though admitted they are not aware of letters sent to Malacañang by the international donor community expressing concern over the possible escalation of conflict between government troops and the MILF.

While the government welcomes the concern of the international community, Dureza said “their seeming apprehension is misplaced.”

“Let it not appear as if they are more concerned than we are in preserving the gains of the peace process,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the government has made assurances to donor countries that it would exert more effort to save the peace process.


Stand down

The MILF has ordered all its combatants to observe maximum restraint and maintain “defensive posture” in the face of a looming standoff with government forces already massing up in Basilan.

“The MILF remains in a defensive position. The MILF force will not move (or) fire their guns unless fired upon,” rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said.

MILF chieftain Al Haj Murad ordered all fighters to stand down following Malaysia’s appeal for sobriety during a closed door meeting with the leaders of the rebel group yesterday.

Datuk Othman bin Abdu’razak, chief Malaysian facilitator of the government-MILF peace talks, met with Murad in Barangay Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan late Wednesday.

Abdu’razak appealed for a stand down between government and MILF forces and for them to take initiatives to resume peace negotiations brokered by the Malaysian government.

The MILF responded positively to the appeal made by Abdu’razak and declared its readiness to resume peace talks with the government and discuss still unresolved topics of the negotiations.

Key MILF sources revealed that Murad told Abdu’razak of their willingness to cooperate with a “third party probe” over the issue of the killing of 14 Marines in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan last July 10.

Ten of the slain Marines were decapitated following the attack, which the MILF admitted to but denied beheading and mutilating the soldiers.

The MILF claimed self defense on their part since the soldiers supposedly entered into their territory without permit and in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Murad stressed the need for a full investigation of the beheading of the Marines to determine who should be held responsible.

Chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said the two sides have agreed to carry out a joint fact-finding mission to look into the ambush of the 14 Marines.

“We want to get the facts. We want reason to prevail here,” Garcia said.

The soldiers were part of a contingent searching for kidnapped Italian missionary Giancarlo Bossi on the information that the priest was being held by his captors somewhere in Tipo-Tipo.

Bossi was later released by his kidnappers in Lanao del Norte last July 19, 40 days after he was snatched near his parish in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The government and the MILF have been trying to forge a peace accord in Kuala Lumpur but talks have stalled on the issue of ancestral domain.

Murad told Abdu’razak that the MILF favors the resumption of the stalled peace talks but only if both sides discuss the extent of the proposed territory of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).

Murad also relayed to Abdu’razak the need for the two panels to renew the mandate of the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG).

The AHJAG, composed of representatives from the MILF, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), helps the joint ceasefire committee in implementing the ceasefire agreement.

Murad said the MILF is also concerned with the impending termination in September of the tenure of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), which helps oversee the enforcement of the ceasefire.

The joint ceasefire committee, on the other hand, issued a statement urging the government and the MILF to “refrain from issuing public pronouncements that will further complicate the situation in Basilan, aggravate the heightened tensions felt in other parts of Mindanao, or compromise the integrity of the ongoing fact-finding mission.”

In the same statement, the joint ceasefire committee said a joint fact-finding team is expected to arrive in Basilan within the week to probe the ambush.


Let us help

On the other hand, local officials in Basilan urged Malacañang and the AFP to allow them to intervene in the investigation of the Tipo-Tipo ambush.

During a dialogue with Dureza, the local officials urged the military and the MILF to stand down their forces to allow the investigation of the incident to proceed.

Some 3,000 residents have already evacuated their homes in at least six villages in Albarka town in anticipation of the showdown between government troops and the MILF, according to town Mayor Karam Jakilan.

Lantawan Mayor Tahira Ismael, chairman of Basilan’s league of mayors, said they have voluntarily taken the active role of finding out who were behind the beheading of the Marines.

Tahira told Dureza that MILF forces are also massing up in the towns of Ajul and Sumisip.

“We have to take this matter in our level if only to avert possible hostility that will surely escalate to the other towns and Basilan as a whole,” Tahira said.

“For almost five years we have not experienced war. We are apprehensive if hostility breaks loose we will just waste what we have sacrificed to achieve peace and development,” she added.

Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo said they are confident some mayors have information that will lead the military and police to arrest the suspects.

Cedo also clarified the military is not on the offensive but are under orders to implement a police operation to arrest the suspects behind the ambuscade.




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