British security adviser talks peace with MILF

COTABATO CITY – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s top security adviser who helped draft the 1998 peace agreement between the United Kingdom and the Irish Republican Army has discussed the prospects of peace in Mindanao with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

However, the MILF refused to reveal the details of talks between its peace panel, led by Muhaquer Iqbal, and Robert Hannigan during a secret meeting in Davao City the other day.

Hannigan has advised the government to be patient in its efforts to forge a final peace agreement with the MILF.

A peace agreement could take decades to achieve, Hannigan added, citing the UK’s experience in talking peace with the IRA.

Speaking to reporters at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City, Hannigan said the British government ended the 400-year conflict in Northern Ireland through “disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR).”

“A political negotiation is necessary to resolve once and for all the Mindanao conflict which has dragged for several decades now,” he said.

Hannigan said it took the British government 10 years to reach a final agreement with the IRA through patience, hard work and concessions.

A military solution alone cannot end the fighting in Mindanao, he added.

Hannigan said the solution to a conflict should also address the “drivers of violence” and those who try to drive a wedge between the two sides during the peace process.

“There must be an established platform of politics and a stable security environment is essential,” he said.

“The Philippine government must also determine what to do with the armed groups after they have turned in their weapons.”

During his meeting with MILF leaders, Hannigan was accompanied by British Ambassador Peter Beckingham and Chris Wright, political section chief of the British embassy in Manila.

The British government has various socio-economic projects in Mindanao, both as a foreign donor country and as member of the European Union.

Iqbal and other MILF leaders briefed Hannigan on the “ups and downs” of their 11-year-old peace overture with the Philippine government, according to the MILF’s website www.luwaran.net.

Iqbal was said to have told Hannigan of the “three factors” that they consider as “stumbling blocks” to a final peace settlement which they have been trying to hurdle:

• Lack of political will by President Arroyo to address the root causes of the Mindanao problem;

• Opposition to the peace process by some business and political “oligarchs;” and

• Lack of involvement of prominent personalities in the Catholic community.

The MILF website said Hannigan talked about the issues and constraints they encountered as they brokered the Good Friday Agreement between the UK and the IRA.

At Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there were a lot of similarities between the UK and Philippine experience in dealing with rebels.

“One major commonality is that both governments realize that the military solution alone is not the solution to a problem, like dealing with the secessionists in the south as well as with the insurgents, the NPA and to that extent we are same because we have adopted the peace process,” he said.

Ermita said Hannigan shared the UK’s experience on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration as a tool in talking peace with the IRA.

“They filled us in on how DDR worked in their dealings with the IRA, and the qualms that other forces have with DDR are the same,” he said.

“So we learned from the explanation of Dr. Hannigan on the situation and how they came to an agreement with the IRA.”

Ermita said that they told Hannigan that the government has not closed its doors on negotiations with the MILF.

“We gave him the background of what’s happening in Southern Philippines and he agrees that the national government is doing it the correct way, and among the similarities is the realization that problems of this nature could take decades,” he said.

ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, Regional Peace and Order Council chairman, told reporters that he is ready to dialogue with the MILF leadership on possible security arrangements to stave off guerrilla-military encounters in the region.

“The ARMM and all its constituent provincial and municipal governments, after all, are major stakeholders in the Mindanao peace process, so we must all treat this peace process as something for all of us, to benefit all of us in the ARMM and surrounding regions,” he said.

However, Ampatuan said any low-level peace dialogue between the government and the MILF would have to be agreed to by both sides bilaterally.

“My family is not at war, has never been at war with the MILF,” he said. – With Marvin Sy, Jose Rodel Clapano