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At the request of the administration, the Institute is facilitating peace negotiations between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim insurgent group operating in the southern island of Mindanao. Deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage announced in May 2003 that the Institute would be working to support negotiations between the two parties. The goal is to help create an "equitable and durable peace agreement" to a decades-long conflict that threatens stability in the Philippines and surrounding areas of Southeast Asia.
Institute staff have frequently played consultative roles in peace processes around the world. The Philippine Facilitation Project, however, is one of the first times that the Institute has become a designated "on-the-ground" facilitator. To advance the peace process, the Institute has assembled an advisory group of retired senior diplomats and a military officer to oversee the negotiations, and will also draw upon the diverse expertise of its staff, experienced in projects helping to stabilize the Dayton Peace Accords in the Balkans. The Institute will be working in an unofficial capacity in collaboration with the government of Malaysia, which has the lead role in the mediation.
The team of senior advisers for the Philippine Facilitation Project includes Institute president Richard Solomon; Institute board chairman Chester Crocker; former U.S. ambassadors to the Philippines Nicholas Platt, Richard Murphy, Frank Wisner, and Stephen Bosworth; retired Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni; and Institute executive vice president Harriet Hentges. The project's executive director is Eugene Martin, former deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Dr. Astrid Tuminez is the senior research associate for the project.
America's interest in ending the Filipino conflict is both strategic and humanitarian. Impoverished by communal tensions and conflict, Mindanao has proven to be a haven for criminal gangs. More recently, it has become a training ground for Southeast Asian terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda, including Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamyah, the latter believed to be responsible for the October 2002 deadly bombing in Bali.
The Institute sent an initial delegation to the Philippines in August 2003 to assess the situation. This was followed by a meeting between the advisory group and Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in New York City in September to discuss how the Institute can best facilitate the peace talks. Subsequently, the Congressional Philippine-U.S. Friendship Caucus, co-chaired by Congressman Darrell Issa of California, hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill to inform members of Congress about the Institute's Philippine project. Solomon, Zinni, and Martin discussed their perspectives on the prospects and challenges of the peace process. A second Institute team visited the Philippines in November 2003. It met with government, religious, and civil society representatives (Muslim and non-Muslim) to explore priorities and objectives.
The Institute's Philippine initiative has three components. First, drawing upon its experience in mediation in other conflict situations, the Institute has proposed nine basic principles as a basis for negotiation and is exploring a variety of formulas for resolving the underlying causes of the conflict. Second, working with all interested parties, the Institute is developing proposals for economic and social development projects for conflict-affected areas of Mindanao once a peace agreement is signed. Such projects would be funded by $30 million budgeted by the State Department to support the peace process. Third, Institute programs, including education, rule of law, and interfaith dialogue, will be incorporated into a post-agreement process designed to sustain a settlement.
Director: Eugene Martin
Assistant: Chrissy Hoffman
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