Canada keen on helping monitor ceasefire

COTABATO CITY — The government of Canada, which has various projects aimed at enhancing governance in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is interested in helping monitor the ceasefire in areas where forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are scattered.

In its website (www.luwaran.com), the MILF said Steven Rheault-Kihara, a political relations counselor in the Canadian Embassy in Manila, discussed with ranking leaders of the MILF last Thursday Canada’s willingness to deploy a representative to the 60-member International Monitoring Team, which has been helping oversee the ceasefire for three years now.

Also present in the meeting, held in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, were MILF peace panel members Michael Mastura and Musib Buat.

The Canadian diplomat, however, clarified that the representative they intend to send to the monitoring team would function as a civilian observer who would oversee governance in areas covered by the ceasefire.

The 60-member monitoring team is composed of police and military officers from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya and a rehabilitation expert from Japan.

Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has been helping strengthen governance in remote ARMM towns in the 1990s through its Local Government Support Program (LGSP).

The ARMM’s LGSP office, managed by Merlinda Hussien, has since implemented more than 200 capability-building projects involving different sectors, including the religious and political communities in the autonomous region, as part of Canada’s effort of helping decentralize governance in far-flung communities.

Among the towns that benefited from LGSP were Sultan Kudarat and Datu Paglas, now the economic hubs of the first and second districts in Maguindanao, respectively.

Rheault-Kihara told the MILF representatives that Canada has expertise on governance, particularly in helping manage the affairs of indigenous folks, which they call "first nations" in their country.

The Swedish government earlier signified its intention of sending delegates to the monitoring team, which has lately been carrying out medical missions in remote towns to foster cordiality with Muslim communities in areas covered by the ceasefire. — John Unson