RP to ask Malaysia to keep peacekeepers
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 20:04:00 04/23/2008
Filed Under: RP peace process, Foreign affairs & international relations, Diplomacy
MANILA, Philippines -- The government will ask Malaysia not to pull out peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) when their mandate expires in September, a senior Palace official said Wednesday.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita acknowledged that Malaysia plays a key role in the Mindanao peace process, which seeks to forge an agreement between the separatist group and the government to end the decades-old armed conflict in the south.
Aside from leading the Aside from International Monitoring Team (IMT) which oversees the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, Malaysia is also third-party facilitator to the peace talks with the MILF.
The IMT also includes military officers from Libya, a contingent from Brunei, and an economic expert from Japan.
Malaysia currently has about 40 personnel in the team.
Reports have said that Malaysia will no longer send representatives to the IMT once the mandate of its monitors end in September. More recent reports said Brunei has also expressed its intention of pulling out its 10-man contingent from the IMT.
But Ermita stressed the government has yet to receive official word from the Malaysian government on the planned pullout.
"At worst probably, what can happen is there could be a reduction in the number of personnel, but even that we are not sure [of]. There really has not been any talk that indicates that they would pull out from the peace process," he said.
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