Visiting UN human rights execs support Mindanao peace process
MANILA,
June 27 (PNA) -– Visiting officials from the United Nations
humanitarian headquarters based in New York and their Asia-Pacific
section office in Bangkok have expressed full support to the
comprehensive peace process pursued by the Philippine government in
Mindanao.
A
UN delegation led by Agnes Asekenye-Oonyu of the UN Office for
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), Section Chief for Asia
and the Pacific, recently visited evacuations centers in Maguindanao
province and other areas of Central Mindanao, including Cotabato City.
Other
members of the delegation were Ann Kristin Brunborg, Pia Hussein, and
Sebastian Rhodes-Stampa, a graduate of the Royal Military Academy
Sandhurst in England who is involved in peacekeeping action in Kosovo
and in the Middle East.
Presidential
Adviser on the Peace Process Avelino “Sonny” I. Razon Jr. has
repeatedly said the government is ready to resume peace talks with the
MILF.
Earlier
this month, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, head of the
government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), said the government would work to alleviate the plight of
evacuees in various evacuation center at the Datu Gumbay Piang
Elementary School in the Maguindanaoan town of Datu Piang.
In
late November last year, UN officials from the United States and the
United Nations’ Children’s Fund (Unicef) in the Philippines, together
with the representatives from the international humanitarian group
Non-Violent Peace Force (NVPF) also visited the same public school
compound.
Radhika
Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative to the Secretary General on
Children in Armed Conflict (SRSG-CIAC), and Vanessa Tobin of Unicef,
conducted dialogues with ceasefire committee officials from both the
Philippine government and the MILF during their visit in the provinces
of North Cotabato, Shariff Kabunsuan, and Maguindanao.
“We want to know the gaps and their needs,” Oonyu was quoted by the Philippines News Agency as saying.
“We
want to listen to everybody especially the mothers and children. We
want to see how the concerned agencies are responding to the situation.
We come here to see how the people involved in these activities cope
with the situation," she said. (PNA)
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