Of people’s Wars and Waging Peace

Of people’s Wars and Waging Peace

The Philippines and Colombia:

By Joyce Valbuena

Philippines’s newly elected President, Rodrigo R. Duterte, vowed he will resume the formal peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF). Even before his inauguration as President has arrived, Duterte already initiated a dialogue between two parties which was held in Oslo, Norway last week.

What will be the prospect of the peace talk under Duterte’s administration? As early as now, Duterte shows ironies in his platforms, however, on a positive outlook, we can only hope that he will seriously move forward the peace negotiation.

Meanwhile the government of the Republic of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) have agreed to install a public table of conversations to talk on the points that will lead to the signing of a Final Accord to end the armed conflict and agree on transformations to attain peace in Colombia. Yet, critics are skeptical to the right wing liberal government that takes the liberal approach to peace process.

In short, nothing is still too clear yet on the success of peace accord in these two countries.

This issue was the topic in a forum organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-Canada (ICHRP) and Anakbayan in Toronto. Some 30 participants, mostly community members of Philippine and Columbia migrant associations attended the forum which was held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE-University of Toronto) last June 18.

PHOTOS: HG

The discussants noted parallelisms in both countries’ stalemates to peace process. Both countries have dismal socio-economic and political conditions where land reform, human rights violations and coercive military operations are major concerns. Likewise, inequality and poverty are prevalent in both countries.

Alicia Kuin, a mediator and conflict facilitator in Toronto and the Founder and Chair of Mediators Beyond Borders Canada, discussed the stalemates to the Philippine-NDF peace negotiation. Kuin wrote her dissertation on this topic when she was taking her PhD in Netherlands. Noting that the Philippine peace negotiation is a four-decade long of raging civil war in struggle for national democracy by NDF and Bangsamoro, Kuin said she sees hope as Duterte commits to resuming peace talks with the revolutionary forces of the NDF. Duterte is an avowed Leftist president who promises to release hundreds of political prisoners; appoints Leftists in his cabinet; takes pro-poor, pro-people positions; and whose initial foreign policy pronouncements indicate greater independence from external dictates.

Kuin said that it is already a good indication that Duterte will soon order the release from prison of 18 NDFP peace consultants and staff allowing them to join in the talks while other political prisoners will also be released on humanitarian grounds.

Raul Burbano on the peace process in Colombia

Another speaker at the forum was Raul Burbano, who hails from Colombia and is the Executive Director of Common Frontiers, a multi-sectoral working group which confronts, and proposes an alternative to, the social, environmental and economic effects of economic integration in the Americas.

Burbano explained that extractive industries and the multi-national mining companies have big interest on vast land area in Colombia. Just like in the Philippines, these companies employ military coercion to displace people resulting to human rights violations. Burbano said that massive inequality in Colombia is the root cause of violence. Burbano said that peace cannot be attained where there is inequality.

Burbano is actively involved in the Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a project that is essentially political, anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist, founded on the principles of cooperation, accompaniment and solidarity.

Both speakers agree that the US war on terror is affecting peace accords in the Philippines, Colombia and many other countries as it imposes rules on how to combat terrorism yet hinders the efforts of individual countries to create conditions for a lasting peace.