February 6, 2010 - Members of the International Contact Group (ICG) have shown sterling performance in the recent peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last January 27-28.

This was the collective assessment of the MILF Peace Panel after the short-circuited talks on the next day when it decided not to meet their counterpart from the GRP who submitted a 17-page draft (font 14, double spaced) that totally deviated from agreed outline, scope, and content of the draft proposal on comprehensive compact.

Among those commonly agreed items that the GRP lawyer Camilo Montesa summed up are: 1) Identity and citizenship, 2) Governance structure, 3) Security arrangements, 4) Wealth-sharing, natural resources and property rights, 5) Restorative justice and reconciliation, 6) Implementation arrangements, and 7) Independent Monitoring.

But Mastura also pointed out that, except for item 5, the MILF agreed to prepare a Draft as outlined earlier. However, he clarified that “the MILF stresses Transitional justice and reconciliation rather than Restorative justice.”

The states’ representatives of the ICG present were Mr. Hitoshi Ozawa and Mr. Yoshihisa Ishikawa, Minister and First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Manila respectively (Japan); H.E. Ambassador Boyd McCleary, British High Commissioner to Malaysia and Mr. Christopher Wright, Second Secretary, British Embassy in Manila (UK); H.E. Yasin Temizkan, Chargé d’ Affaires, Embassy of Turkey in Kuala Lumpur (Turkey).

The INGO members who attended were: David Gorman, Mediation Adviser of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HDC); The Asia Foundation’s(TAF) Dr. Steven Rood, Country Representative for the Philippines, Herizal Hazri, Program Director in Malaysia, and Thomas Parks, Regional Director for Governance and Conflict based in Thailand; Ms. Cynthia Petrigh, Advisor on Peace Process, Conciliation Resources (CR, London); and Dr. Din Syamsuddin, President of Muhammadiyah accompanied by an adviser, Surwandono.

Asked to identify the personalities in the ICG who were very active and who exceptionally did their roles, Atty. Abdul Dataya, a neophyte in the MILF Peace Panel, begged off not to be specific in mentioning names.

He said the ICG is a neutral body as far as relationship with the Parties is concerned, clarifying, however, that their roles require them to be very objective, consistent, and more result-oriented.

He praised both the GRP and MILF Peace Panels for being very creative in inviting the ICG to help in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations.

The ICG interacts and deals primarily with the Malaysian facilitator, Datuk Othman Bin Abdu’ Razzak, and on special situation also with the Parties. Dataya temporarily replaced Atty. Musib Buat, who is still recuperating from a heart bypass late last year.

Datu Antonio Kinoc, also a newcomer to the MILF peace delegation, told www.luwaran.com that all members of the ICG know what they say, when, and how to say and do it.

“We are impressed,” he said, without elaborating.

Kinoc is a member of the indigenous tribe in Mindanao, belonging to the B’laan tribe.

Even during talks, he sports the B’laan garb, which he finds fulfilling for the identity of his people back home.

He was once quoted as saying: “I was born a B’laan, live as B’laan, and die as B’laan.”