MANILA (Mitch Confesor / 24 May) The Swedish Foreign Ministry has encouraged Manila to consider the process of disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating of rebels into society like those in the war-torn regions of Africa and the nations of Ireland and Cambodia to build peace in the community.
The Stockholm Initiative on Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (SIDDR) cited as one example the decommissioning efforts of the respective governments of the Protestant-majority United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UKGBNI) and of the Catholic-majority Republic of Ireland on the armed conflict involving Irish militants on both sides of the politico-religious fence.
Ambassador on Conflict Management Lena Sundh of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said the Philippines could very well adopt the SIDDR as a process which gathers representatives from donors and host nations, international organizations, academic institutions, and civilian, military, and police experts.
“Reintegration is a conflict resolution mechanism that can substantially contribute to security and longer term development for individuals, communities, and nations,” Sundh explained during the two-day Roundtable Discussion on Social and Economic Reintegration held recently at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City.
Together with the Swedish Embassy in Manila, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) organized the roundtable discussion with the participation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Ambassador Annika Markovic, Sweden’s envoy to the Philippines, hosted the gathering with resource speakers that included Canadian Brigadier General John de Chastelain discussing the British-Irish situation and Cambodian civil society member Neb Sinthay tackling the Khmer Rouge issue.
The SIDDR forum also discussed the conflict involving Indonesian military forces and Acehnese rebels and how the process of disarmament, demobilization, and social and economic reintegration had affected the people of the conflict region of Aceh before and after the December 2004 tsunami.
The roundtable forum also revealed that Stockholm’s approach had run parallel with the “Integrated DDR Standards” of the United Nations (UN), the policy work on small arms and light weapons of the African Union (AU), and the regional program for central Africa of the World Bank called the “Multi-Country Demobilisation and Reintegration Program.”
As part of the DDR’s centrality in any peace process, the Swedish government cited possible reintegration programs as land and agricultural projects, better public works, vocational training and apprenticeship, micro-credit and micro-enterprise schemes, and integration into the organic military and police force.
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