COTABATO CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 08 May) The Philippines' largest Muslim separatist rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), praised Japan on Monday for its support to the ongoing peace talks in Mindanao, a troubled, but mineral-rich region south of Manila.
The MILF said Shideo Yamada, Director of the Second South East Asia Division of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Yoshihisa Ishikawa, First Secretary of the Political Section of the Japanese Embassy, met at the weekend with Ghazali Jaafar, its vice chairman for political affairs, and other senior rebel leaders in Maguindanao province.
The two Japanese officials assured the MILF and Manila of its active role in the peace process. The MILF is currently negotiating peace with the Arroyo government in an effort to end more than three decades of bloody fighting in Mindanao.
“We are very grateful for the Japanese government for her great concern to ensure peace and stability in our homeland and in Mindanao. Your visit here is a manifestation of the tremendous concern of your government on the current peace process. This will be long remembered by the Bangsamoro people," Jaafar told Yamada.
The MILF said Shideo Yamada, Director of the Second South East Asia Division of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Yoshihisa Ishikawa, First Secretary of the Political Section of the Japanese Embassy, met at the weekend with Ghazali Jaafar, its vice chairman for political affairs, and other senior rebel leaders in Maguindanao province.
The two Japanese officials assured the MILF and Manila of its active role in the peace process. The MILF is currently negotiating peace with the Arroyo government in an effort to end more than three decades of bloody fighting in Mindanao.
“We are very grateful for the Japanese government for her great concern to ensure peace and stability in our homeland and in Mindanao. Your visit here is a manifestation of the tremendous concern of your government on the current peace process. This will be long remembered by the Bangsamoro people," Jaafar told Yamada.
The MILF said Yamada was in Maguindanao to personally assess the current security situation in Mindanao and how Japan can join the Malaysian-led international truce team in Mindanao.
Malaysian Major General Dato’ Soheimi bin Abbas, head of truce monitoring team, briefed the Japanese officials about the progress of the peace process.
Yamada said he was impressed with the sincerity and commitment and confidence of both Manila and MILF in the ongoing peace talks and also lauded the international truce observers for their active role in the peace process. "The international monitoring team is doing a wonderful job in sustaining the ceasefire on the ground and touching the lives of the people," Yamada said.
Ishikawa was also in Zamboanga City early this year assured Japan will continue its humanitarian projects despite concerns for the safety of its citizens and aid workers in Mindanao, where security forces are pursuing Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants whose groups are tied to al-Qaeda terror network.
"Generally, Japan is concerned, of course, with the safety of its citizens and aid workers in Mindanao, but this won't affect our humanitarian assistance to Mindanao,” he said.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen kidnapped a Japanese man Senichi Takayama and shot dead his Filipino companion in 1997 in the southern Philippine resort town of Glan. In 1998, suspected Abu Sayyaf militants threatened to kidnap Japanese aid workers in Zamboanga City. And in January 2003, unidentified gunmen barged into the house of a 48-year old Japanese trader Hazumitsu Hashiba in Lanuza town in Surigao del Sur province and kidnapped him.
Tokyo is one of the Philippines' biggest aid donors and has funded many humanitarian projects as far as Tawi-Tawi and Basilan islands, both strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines.
Japan in 1989 launched in the Philippines the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects for the purpose of reducing poverty and helping various communities engaged in grassroots activities.
Since then, more than 300 small-scale grassroots projects had been implemented in the country, including a social rehabilitation center built in 2003 in Basilan island worth US$90,740 as part of Tokyo's commitment to support the Philippine government’s efforts in promoting peace and development in Mindanao.
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