The Mindanao Peoples' Peace Agenda (MPPA) of the Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW) has won the endorsement of two key international civil society networks.

The agenda was recently endorsed by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict in South East Asia (GPPAC) – a coalition of global civil society-led network established in 2003 in response to the call made by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for an international conference of civil society organisations working in the field of conflict prevention.

In its regional steering group meeting in Thailand last week, GPPAC also appealed to the Philippine government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) to consider the concerns of the peoples of Mindanao as embodied in the MPPA.

 

We applaud the courageous move of Davao City mayor Inday Sara Duterte to seek peaceful alternatives to the escalating armed encounters in Davao City between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the rebel New People's Army. Indeed, the Lumads, Moro, and Christian settlers not only in Davao City but in the whole of Mindanao need a solution to the armed conflict which will have a lasting and effective impact on communities and which will effectively address not only the grievances of those who have taken up arms against the state but will also deal with the socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural agenda of the peoples of Mindanao.

We in the Mindanao Peaceweavers, a coalition of seven (7) peace networks in Mindanao, encourage Mayor Duterte to promote constructive dialogue among the stakeholders in the armed conflict. As a platform for peace-building in Davao City, we humbly offer the Mindanao People's Peace Agenda (MPPA).

 

(1 July – Dili) - “The Indonesian military raped women to subdue Timorese men, to reduce the commitment of combatants to the struggle for independence,” Ms Lita Sarmento shared at the international meeting held on 30 June to 1 July 2010 in UNMIT Obrigado Barracks in Dili. She said this after Ms Shadia Marhaban reported on the impact on women in Aceh of the 30-year conflict between the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). “In one village (in Aceh), 40 women were raped. It was a strategy of the Indonesian military to cripple the Movement,” Ms Marhaban elaborated.