International Monitoring Team’s advance party arrives

by MindaNews
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 06:55

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 February) – The Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) is back.

Its advance party, the IMT Reconnaissance Team is arriving in Cotabato City February 17 to conduct an ocular inspection of the proposed IMT Sites in preparation for the deployment of a new batch to Mindanao, IMT-5, the fifth batch since 2004.
The IMT’s mandate, renewed yearly upon the request of both the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels, lapsed on November 30, 2008 and could not be renewed then because government disbanded its peace panel in early September that year and had not set up a new one by November.

The Reconnaissance Team, headed by Lt. Gen. Datuk Raja Mohammed Affandi bin Raja Mohamed, Chief of Staff of the Malaysian Armed Forces Headquarters and accompanied by Maj. Gen Datuk Baharom Bin Hamzah, the incoming Head of Mission of the IMT; and seven others from the Malaysian Armed Forces and Ministry of Defense.

The team will proceed to the cities of Iligan and Zamboanga from Cotabato and will meet with officials of local government tunits, the military and police and MILF officials until February 20.

Representatives from the GRP-MILF Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (JCCCH), the Philippine National Police, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Armed Forces of the Philippines will accompany the team throughout its Mindanao sorties.

The IMT serves as the Third party whose mandate is to monitor the implementation of the ongoing Agreement on the General Cessation of Hostilities (AGCH) of 1997 and the Agreement on the Rehabilitation and Development of the Conflict Affected Areas in Mindanao (CAAM).

The new mandate of the IMT, renewed by the GRP – MILF Peace Panels on December 8, 2009, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, now includes the Civilian Protection component of the IMT.

The IMT Reconnaissance team after the visit will decide on the actual deployment of the IMT to Mindanao.

Aside from Malaysia, the other members of the IMT are Libya, Brunei Darussalam, and Japan, which has been sending a development expert instead of armed troops. (MindaNews)