PRESIDENT Xanana Gusmao may have prophesied when he told fellow East Timorese four years ago that “raising our flag will not mean that malaria will suddenly disappear, or that domestic violence will suddenly end, or that we all will have enough food, education, electricity, roads, or jobs. We dreamed of independence, but now we dream of development and of being a developed nation.” Those words can never be more relevant at present as the world’s tiniest and youngest nation is thrust again into socio-political turmoil threatening to rip the fabric of the nation – this time from within not from without
Papers
A Summary of Conflict Prevention Mechanisms in Southeast Asia
The complex and interconnected nature of conflicts in southeast Asia has made conflict prevention an urgent call in...
Bud Dahu: Healing and justice is sought for a 100-year old injustice
The saga of Bud Dahu looms tall in the myths and lives of the Tausugs in Sulu, even if a hundred years after, the process of story telling has only started. “Bud Dahu is only one of the many mountains in the world, but it has conquered world history,” proclaimed Prof. Sahie S.Udjah, a member of the Bud Dahu Coordinating Council (BDCC) at the start of the “Pagtibaw Sajahitra” (peace pilgrimage) campaign started by Sulu civil society and peace support groups in early March in Sulu.
“Bantay Ceasefire” report on the clashes in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in late January 2006
Bantay Ceasefire investigated the reported clashes in Barangays Tapikan, Coloy and Nabundas, Mamasapano town, Maguindanao in January. BC found out, among others, that clash between 105th Base Command MILF-BIAF and 106th Base Command MILF-BIAF on January 25, 2006 in Brgy. Kaykaya, Datu Abdullah Sangki was an internal problem of the MILF Command coordination. The intervention of paramilitary troops (CAFGU’s and CVO’s) in the said conflict complicated the situation.
A Visit to Nur Misuari
In August 11, 2005, the Mindanao Peaceweavers visited Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari in his prison cell in Fort Sto. Domingo, Sta. Rosa Laguna. It was the group’s second attempt at seeking an audience with Chairman. The first one, in April, was turned down by the Philippine National Police. For this visit, the group had a four-point agenda: 1. Update on the Sulu Solidarity Mission 2. Status of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement and the role of OIC and other third party mediators 3. His views on the current political crisis and federalism and 4. the status of his case.
Three Days with a Bantay Ceasefire Mission
In our contemporary world — when the boundaries between our private understanding of security and the common hunt for terrorists, between our needs and the state’s imperative to control the situation are melting — it is not easy to follow our own principles. There are many examples of societies which accept the state’s rules on countering terrorism. Thus we are heartened to know that civil society initiatives like Bantay Ceasefire exists as a peace advocacy – so that people in
Mindanao can change their life situation.