Filipino government, separatists to negotiate arms laydown in Malaysia

From the Malaya Mail Online (Sep 22): Filipino government, separatists to negotiate arms laydown in Malaysia

Representatives from Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will hold talks in Malaysia to set the terms for decommissioning of firearms by MILF fighters in the restive South Philippines region.

A Philippines government official told Filipino news portal GMA News Online that negotiating panels from both sides will meet in Kuala Lumpur from September 27 to 29 "to pull everything together".

Government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said part of the meeting agenda will have to finalise the composition of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the International Decommissioning Body (IDB), it reported.

 The TJRC will be tasked with studying and recommending "the appropriate mechanisms to address legitimate grievances of the Bangsamoro people, correct historical injustices, and address human rights violations through land dispossession", as outlined under the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) signed by the government and the MILF in March, it added.

The IDB, on the other hand, will consist of three foreign experts and four Filipinos who will validate the inventory of weapons and fighters that will be submitted by the MILF. Coronel-Ferrer said in the report that experts from Brunei, Turkey and Norway have been invited to attend the three-day meeting, and expect the TJRC and IDB to be established within a month.

“But the most important thing, the first order of business, is for the MILF to produce a list of weapons and combatants and submit it to the IDB," she was reported as saying.

Meanwhile, MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal told the news portal that the former paramilitary group has already prepared a list of firearms and names of combatants for the IDB.

He declined to reveal the final tally of weapons, but volunteered that "the firearms are combinations of high-powered and light-powered" weaponry.

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/filipino-government-separatists-to-negotiate-arms-laydown-in-malaysia