IMT deployment in Mindanao comes with progress in talks

January 22, 2010 - While the redeployment of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) has been discussed and agreed during the resumption of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks in Kuala Lumpur on December 8-9, their actual coming and exact date of touching base still depends on the contributing states and the progress of the peace talks now on the final stretch.

This was the clarification made by a member of the MILF Peace Panel, who requested anonymity, in an interview with www.luwaran.com last night.

He explained that agreement by the Parties to give mandate to the IMT partakes the nature of a recommendation but carries a very strong moral appeal in the spirit of peace-making that the international community now endorses or is fully engaged, but the decision is still in the hands of the contributing country.

“The hard thing is that there is a link between ensuring a peaceful atmosphere on the ground by the IMT and the progress of the peace talks on the negotiating table,” he further clarified, adding that the two are inseparable.

However, he is very optimistic that the IMT will be fielded in Mindanao immediately once a real progress in the peace talks happens during the forthcoming meeting in Kuala Lumpur between the Parties. Both the MILF and government have submitted their respective draft proposals on the comprehensive compact last January 20, which will be exchanged during the next round of talks in the presence of the members of the International Contact Group (ICG).

ICG member states are United Kingdom, Japan, and Turkey, all former world empires, while the international non-government organizations (INGOs) ICG members are Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (European-based), The Asia Foundation (Washington-based), Conciliation Resources (London-based), and Muhammadiyah (Jakarta-based).

The MILF 51-page draft proposal (not 21 as earlier published) has 18 articles and covers every aspect of the proposed interim Bangsamoro governance. It is premised on a state-and-substate relationship.

However, luwaran has no idea of the government draft, although it is expected to contain at least seven articles, which Undersecretary Camilo Montessa presented and proposed during the agenda-setting session of the Parties last December 9.


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