The Davao-based regional advocacy and solidarity NGO, Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) celebrates its 21st anniversary today gratified with a strengthened belief in the power of dialogue to resolve conflicts. This amidst the recent move of the Government of the Republic of the Philppines and the Moro Islamic National Liberation Front (MILF) to reconvene and prepare for a probable resumption of talks. A similar announcement was also made by the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) to reconvene their own 4-year stalled talks.
“We are very optimistic that the mechanism of dialogue as an instrument of conflict prevention and peace building will be restored to utility and maximized to the hilt. . We count our blessings”, stated Executive Director Gus Miclat in a radio interview on the eve of IID’s anniversary on the twin peace talks resumption announcements.
The Davao-based regional advocacy and solidarity NGO, Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) celebrates its 21st anniversary today gratified with a strengthened belief in the power of dialogue to resolve conflicts. This amidst the recent move of the Government of the Republic of the Philppines and the Moro Islamic National Liberation Front (MILF) to reconvene and prepare for a probable resumption of talks. A similar announcement was also made by the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) to reconvene their own 4-year stalled talks.
“We are very optimistic that the mechanism of dialogue as an instrument of conflict prevention and peace building will be restored to utility and maximized to the hilt. . We count our blessings”, stated Executive Director Gus Miclat in a radio interview on the eve of IID’s anniversary on the twin peace talks resumption announcements.
IID, the region’s premier NGO promoting south-south solidarity and internationalism, was officially founded on August 2, 1988 during the post-Marcos dictatorship era. Its progenitors were human rights activists in the anti-dictatorship struggle who were steeped in international solidarity work. Establishing the IID was a way of giving back to the international community for its accompaniment and support of the struggle against Marcos. IID eventually evolved into a regional entity after it pioneered and led the campaign for East Timor’s self-determination in Southeast Asia through the Asia-Pacific Coalition for East Timor (APCET). IID then branched into leading solidarity campaigns for Aceh, Burma and West Papua. In 1986, IID relocated to Davao City to engage the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA). In 2000, after the “all out war” of then President Joseph Estrada in Mindanao, IID embarked on a peacebuilding program in the island by establishing the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC). In 2008, MPC spinned-off from IID as an independent network of tri-peoples grassroots communities and organizations.
With Conflict Prevention and Peace Building, Right to Self-determination and Democratization as its focal themes, the geographic areas of concentration of IID remain to be in Timor Leste, Aceh, Burma, West Papua, South Thailand and Mindanao. At present, it is the regional initiator of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) for Southeast Asia. In such capacity, it represents the regional concerns on the international level among others to the rest of GPPAC’s regional initiators.
Apart from its advocacy and participation in GPPAC, IID also anchors other local and regional networks similarly motivated towards the same objectives, namely: Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW)- the broadest network of peace groups in Mindanao; Free Burma Coalition (FBC)-Philippines; Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)- the network that was born from the APCET experience and Asian Circle 1325, a loose network of women peacebuilders in the region. It also co-founded or is a steering committee member of Waging Peace Philippines (WPP), Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN), Burma Partnership (BP), World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA), International Coalition on Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP), NGO Process of the Community of Democracies and the Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy (SAPA). Together with these organizations and networks, IID actively endeavors to push for the implementation of conflict prevention, self-determination and democratization initiatives and mechanisms and consistently lobbies for meaningful participation of civil society.
The co-founder of IID, Miclat underscored the importance of partnership between civil society organizations and the media in improving the climate for peace. He further added that there has been a significant increase in the level of awareness among the public on the issues surrounding the peace talks. “The public should be appropriately informed and educated to ultimately enable them to properly participate in the goal of conflict prevention and peace-building. Partnerships and sufficient knowledge of roles are essential to attaining peace goals”, added Miclat.
“The media is the most efficient and effective vehicle for building and fostering peace as it can impact peace in a dozen or so ways in the shortest span in view of its current pervasiveness. And if used and mobilized in harmony with the reforms of peace programs, media can greatly contribute to the resolution of current conflicts if it does not totally efface it,” stressed Miclat. There is, therefore an obvious need to amplify efforts not only in informing the public but more so to deeply involve them in peace efforts directed in addressing the issues .
On its 21styear, IID seeks to increase efforts in addressing the issues of human rights, human security, democracy, self-determination and governance in Southeast Asia. When asked about the rationale for such goal, Miclat quipped, ”Wars are always fought in the name of the people, but the fact that this is always done at the expense of the very people it invokes, has always been overlooked. It is perhaps noteworthy that the recent hostilities in Mindanao alone, yielded the biggest displacement of people in the world in 2008 – even bigger than the one that took place in Sudan.”
“Needless to say, there is a better way to peace, and that is dialogue and we are here to try to help make sure that it becomes the preferred choice of action in every conflict situation in the region,” closed Miclat.
Mong Principe is the Communications Officer in the Knowledge Management and Communications (KMC) Program of the Initiatives for International Dialogue.
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