Wednesday, January 14, 2009 MILF welcomes help of Timor president
THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has welcomed the possible intervention of Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta in the stalled Mindanao peace process.
In a report by Luwaran.com, MILF peace panel secretariat head Jun Mantawil said anybody is welcome to help in reviving the peace talks.
"Whoever can help the GRP (Government of Republic of the Philippines)-MILF peace talks is welcome as long as it offered in sincerity and objectively," Mantawil said.
Mantawil is optimistic that Ramos-Horta's vast experience in Timor Leste's struggle for freedom and the accompanying hardships, sacrifices, and bloodshed and how the Government of Indonesia responded will afford him to play his role effectively.
However, he explained that how to bring in the Timor Leste's President into the facilitation is not an easy decision to make.
Mantawil said there are many states, groups or even prominent personalities who are inclined to help in the peace process, including facilitation, but the Arroyo administration's "dribbling" of the resumption of the peace talks wasted all this opportunity.
Ramos-Horta expressed willingness to help in the peace efforts in Mindanao to Gus Miclat, executive director of the Initiatives for International Dialogues (IID) and a personal friend of the Timor Leste President.
Ramos-Horta will be in Davao City on Wednesday, January 14, to discuss "Is Long Lasting Peace an Attainable Dream" in a public forum at the Ateneo de Davao University.
In a press statement, the IID said Ramos-Horta told Miclat that he is willing to help if invited by the government and MILF peace panels.
This information was relayed to both parties, the IID said. Miclat said "IID highly recommends President Ramos-Horta for his unwavering work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in then East Timor which finally led to its independence from Indonesian rule in 2002."
"Ramos-Horta did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing and his signal prestige and wisdom plus his impartiality can provide the stalled talks a new whiff of energy and perhaps the corridor to an eventual agreement," Mindanews quoted Miclat as saying.
Ramos-Horta's lecture-visit is "part of a program to bring Nobel Laureates to the Philippines, coordinated by Bridges: Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace and International Peace Foundation based in Bangkok, Thailand." (BOT)
