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An article from Zamboanga Today

In a historic event, the Philippines’ one-time largest Muslim rebel group presented a landmark law last August 8, 2018 which will give Moro people greater autonomy in ruling their homeland in Mindanao.

Congress’ ratification of Bangsamoro and its eventual signing into law by President Rodrigo Duterte came as a huge victory for the Moro Islamic Libetation Front (MILF), which had been waging a rebellion seeking autonomy or independence in southern areas that they regard as their ancestral homeland.

Poster for film Bangsamoro: The Quest for Peace in Mindanao

The presentation developed after President Duterte led the ceremonial signing of the BOL in Malacañang three weeks ago after its signing was delayed due to the abrupt change of leadership in the House of Representatives.

It will be recalled that during his presidential campaign in 2016, Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, said he would work out for the grant of self-governance, in the context of federalism, to Mindanao’s Bangsamoro sectors, if elected president.

“There shall be a Bangsamoro country to finally end the decades-old conflict that is rooted in the Bangsamoro’s fight for self-determination and the recognition of their unique identity,” Duterte said, as he hoped it will help correct the historical injustices committed against the Moros.

The first Philippine President from Mindanao said: “May this (Bangsamoro law) serve as the final trajectory for the attainment of genuine peace, stability, [and] good governance in Muslim Mindanao. Together, let us shatter the dark clouds that once loomed over our nation for generations, welcome the dawn of a brighter future not only for the Bangsamoro people, but for all peace loving Filipinos.”

Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BOL), had called the ratified law for Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) an advent of a new era for Mindanao.

“It’s a new dawn for Bangsamoro in Mindanao,” he said following the ratification of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. “The MILF and the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) are ready to work with the Philippine Government especially in the conduct of the plebiscite that will be held around November.”

Admitting that the “Bangsamoro was the hardest bill he ever tackled, the Mindanao lawmaker said its preamble was contentious.

“They were about to walk away. We were able to convince MILF to step back from independence bid. We will have a parliamentary system in Bangsamoro region. There will be 80 members of parliament under Bangsamoro region. There will be a chief minister,  two deputy chiefs and a ‘wali’ (ceremonial leader).”

Senator Zubiri assured the Bangsamoro people that in the Senate they will exert all efforts to ensure the successful implementation of the BOL.

This includes the budget for the plebiscite and the yearly Block Grant allocation, as well as the national program that will benefit the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, according to Zubiri.

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Can peace be achieved in Mindanao?

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“I will continue to champion our cause in the Senate for the continued peace and prosperity for your region and the whole of Mindanao,” he added.

Without any doubt, according to political observers, President Duterte made true of his promise to the Bangsamoro people and his commitment to the Bangsamoro peace process.

In a statement, Usec. Nabil Tan, deputy presidential peace adviser and chair of the Government Implementing Panel for the GPH-MILF peace accord, said the passage of the BOL is the start of a new chapter in the lives of the Bangsamoro people.

“This is just the beginning… Much work still needs to be done. We must now double our efforts,” said Tan.

Tan noted that both the Senate and House of Representatives made sure the landmark measure was crafted “within the bounds of the Philippine Constitution.”

He said the BOL is a vast improvement over the ARMM Organic Law (RA 9054) and the final peace agreement signed between the Philippine government and the MNLF in 1996.

“This is ARMM plus-plus,” Tan said, explaining that with the passage of the BOL, more resources will now be poured into the region to accelerate its economic development.

These resources, he said, include an annual Block Grant that will be automatically appropriated to the BARMM government to fund its operations for the next 20 years.

Tan said a Special Development Fund will also be provided to fast track the rehabilitation of conflict-affected areas in the region. “We now have this law. The challenge now is how to make the Bangsamoro government work effectively,” he said.

For his part, chair of the Government Implementing Panel for the GPH-MILF peace accord Mohagher Iqbal said the passage of the BOL signifies a milestone that was achieved by the concerted efforts of all stakeholders in the peace process.

He paid tribute to those who made huge sacrifices that led to the approval of the BOL, particularly members of the MILF leadership who have passed away.

He also lauded members of Congress for their firm support to the law, which he said aims to provide the Moro people meaningful autonomy and enable them to chart their political future through the democratic process.

“We urge you to value this agreement. This peace process is for everyone,” Iqbal said.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman said the passage of the BOL is a truly momentous occasion for the Bangsamoro people.

“We have reached this point through sacrifice,” he stressed.

Hataman lauded the Philippine government and the MILF for ensuring the approval of the law, which is expected to bring a long-lasting peace and sustainable development in the region.

He said the passage of the BOL is not meant to diminish the accomplishments of the ARMM government but seeks to build on its gains over the years.

“We are not erasing the ARMM,” Hataman said.

The ARMM governor said that the greater challenge confronting the Bangsamoro people now is how to ensure the successful implementation of the law.

“The new law is now here. Let us unite behind it. This is a better law,” he said. Hader Glang

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An article from Deutsche Welle

Envoys from North and South Korea announced on Monday [13 August] they had reached agreement to hold the upcoming peace summit in the North’s capital of Pyongyang next month.

picture-alliance/dpa/AP/South Korea Unification Ministry

It will mark the third meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Officials from both sides reached an agreement at the truce village of Panmunjom, located in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas.

While no date or an agenda for the upcoming talks were formally announced, the two sides are widely expected to discuss a potential peace declaration and the possibility of launching a series of joint economic and infrastructure projects  that could go ahead once sanctions on Pyongyang are lifted.

South Korea is also expected to push its northern neighbor to accelerate the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. North Korea and the United States have struggled to agree on how to proceed with denuclearizing the peninsula after Kim vowed to disarm during a landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

Summit details thin

Following Monday’s talks, delegates from both sides said in a statement: “We reviewed the implementation situations of the Panmunjom Declaration (which calls for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war and sees the North pledge to denuclearize) and held consultations in a sincere manner on matters related to its more active enforcement.”

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September’s talks will mark the third meeting between Kim and Moon. The two leaders met for the first time in April where they signed the Panmunjom Declaration. The pair met again in May ahead of Kim’s Singapore summit with Trump.

The head of the North Korean delegation, Ri Son Gwon, told reporters following the talks that officials agreed on a specific date for the Pyongyang summit, but refused to disclose the date.

A spokesman of South Korea’s presidential office said it would be difficult for the summit to take place earlier than September 9, when North Korea celebrates the anniversary of its founding.

Sticking points

The nuclear issue has been one of several ongoing points of contention between the Koreas. Both sides have indicated they want to sign a declaration formally ending the Korea War; however the US has said it would only be privy to such a deal once the North has completely abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

That prompted North Korean state media last month to chide the South, accusing it of failing to take practical steps and only abiding to the views of the US.

Pyongyang has asked the US reciprocate its goodwill gestures, although the Trump administration has so far refused to ease economic sanctions. 

Another sticking point is the case of a dozen North Korea restaurant workers who arrived in the South via China in 2016. Pyongyang maintains that the workers were abducted and has even hinted that the issue could obstruct the future reunion of families separated between the two Koreas.

South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon declined to say whether the case of the restaurant workers had come up on Monday, merely stating that Pyongyang’s negotiation team had not brought up new issues. “There were mentions that if there are problems to be resolved by both sides, on humanitarian issues or for the development of inter-Korean relations, we should do it,” Cho told reporters.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY

An article from Deutsche Welle (reprinted by permission)

One day after the historic summit between North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, there are a mix of reactions in South Korea.

The initial results of local elections taking place on Wednesday with the inner-Korean rapprochement in the background showed positive outcomes for the governing Minjoo party.

14 out of 17 mayoral posts and 10 of 12 parliamentary seats up for election went to Minjoo candidates. The results could considered be a vote of confidence for President Moon Jae-in’s North Korea policy.

Among South Korean conservatives, however, there is a growing feeling of disillusionment after Trump and Kim signed a letter of intent. For them, the potential denuclearization of North Korea now seems farther off than ever before.

Nam Sung-wook from Korea University was quoted in the largest South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo as saying the “complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament is no longer a question.”

“Scam of the century”

A major point of contention is Trump’s statement suspending US-South Korean military maneuvers, citing them as “expensive and provocative war games.” There are concerns that the longstanding military alliance between the US and South Korea could be weakened.

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Professor Park Won-gon from Handong Global University told DW that the letter of intent was “the biggest scam of the century that fulfilled 99 percent of North Korea’s wishes.”

In the US, major media outlets also reacted with concern after the summit. The New York Times wrote “North Korea is a nuclear power, get used to it.”

Joseph Yun, a foremost Korea expert in Washington said “North Korea wanted exactly this, and I cannot believe that our side allowed this to happen. I am totally surprised that months of negotiations have led to so few results.”

Surprise suspension of military exercises

President Trump’s plan to suspend military exercises was reportedly not agreed upon in advance with the South Korean government in Seoul. According to a South Korean government speaker, they were not entirely sure exactly what Trump meant by “war games.”

President Moon has called for a national security meeting to take place on Thursday in order to discuss the results of and potential ramifications of the summit.

In the past, South Korea’s government has expressed willingness to reduce the biannual military exercises. Nevertheless, the US and South Korea both consider the exercises to be an integral part of their decades-long alliance. The US current has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

The military exercises do regularly stir controversy with North Korea, which considers them to be a provocative act of war. Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.

For South Koreans, the potential to end the Korean War and achieve peace with the North is something many people are paying attention to.

“I think agreeing on denuclearization is good, but I had expected that Trump and Kim would announce the end of the Korean War,” a middle-aged South Korean on a city street in Seoul told DW. “Of course I know that everything can’t happen at once.”

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An article from Sputnik News

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that his country intends to ensure full implementation of the latest agreements that Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump signed at the Singapore summit earlier in the day.

The South Korean president also stated that Seoul will “accompany Pyongyang on the path of peace and cooperation,” vowing to write a “new history” with North Korea.

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“Leaving dark days of war and conflict behind, we will write a new chapter of peace and cooperation… The June 12 Sentosa Agreement will be recorded as a historic event that has helped break down the last remaining Cold War legacy on Earth” Moon said in a statement released by his office.
Earlier in the day, Moon Jae-in expressed hope that the US-North Korean high-level summit would pave the wave for an “era of complete denuclearization” and peace in the region. However, his adviser previously stated, echoing the words of the Japanese government secretary, that the complete denuclearization of North Korea might take up to a decade.

On Tuesday Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un signed a document after a long-awaited historic summit in Singapore. Addressing the results of the negotiations, Trump said North Korea’s denuclearization process would be starting “very quickly,” while the North Korean leader stated, that the world was about to see “a major change.”

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An article by Simone Chun for Foreign policy in focus (reprinted according to terms of Creative Commons Attribution licence)

Why is the Democratic Party making peace in Korea more difficult?

Last month, I took part in an international women’s peace delegation to South Korea, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and Women Cross DMZ founder Christine Ahn.

It was my first visit to my native Korea in over three years. Everywhere I went, I witnessed the afterglow of the inspiring candlelight movement that restored democracy to the country last year, and I sensed the deep conviction with which Koreans support the current peace process initiated by President Moon Jae-in.

Women’s delegation cross Unification Bridge (Nobel Women’s Initiative via Flickr)

Our delegation noted in one of its first official statements following its arrival in Korea:

What initiated the Panmunjom Declaration was the completely non-violent and peaceful civil revolution in 2016 that began with orderly marches of demonstration with warm candlelight through the winter. The candlelight revolution was a true example of the UN’s Culture of Peace.


In addition to meeting with diplomatic representatives from the United States, UK Japan, Sweden, and Canada, we participated in an all-day peace symposium at the National Assembly side by side with South Korean women peace activists. One of our South Korea colleagues commented that while women have been conspicuously absent from the process of war-making in the Korean peninsula (at least from a policy standpoint) they most certainly ought to be part of the peace process.

On the same day that President Moon and Chairman Kim held their second summit in Panmunjom, our delegation, accompanied by over 1,200 Korean women, walked over five kilometers in the sweltering heat to cross the Unification Bridge on foot. Christine Ahn summed up all our sentiments when she later commented:

“We were the first civilians to walk across the Unification Bridge. As I took my first step onto the bridge, tears streamed down my face as I thought about how Korea was divided by the US and the former Soviet Union after 35 years of Japanese colonial occupation.”

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Returning to the United States however, I found a starkly different reality in the sustained rightwing attacks on the peace process and even the very idea of a peace treaty. Pundits, neocon hawks, and corporate media have been promoting an aggressively maximalist standard according to which North Korea must give up its entire nuclear weapons program before any serious discussions can take place. In this dialogue, the four million Korean and 35,000 American lives lost to the Korean War, as well as the 80 million Koreans whose lives would hang in balance in any renewed conflict, are presented as mere footnotes. North Korea in particular, where poverty is rampant and 25% of children suffer from malnutrition, is presented as the perpetually “threatening other,” fully deserving to suffer from US-led sanctions. American exceptionalism is celebrated without reservation.

In a recent declaration, seven leading Democratic senators continued this disregard for the interests of Koreans themselves in this nominally inter-Korean conflict with their demand that President Trump hold to a hard line in any negotiations with North Korea. The letter – signed by Senators Bob Menendez, Chuck Schumer, Richard Durbin, Mark Warner, Diane Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, and Sherrod Brown – completely overlooked the recent progress toward peace of the inter-Korean summit and the Panmunjom Declaration, and discounted the overwhelming support for the current peace process by Koreans. The letter offers no alternative vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula and considers Korean interests only insofar as they serve the narrow political agenda of the Democratic Party.

On the occasion of our delegation’s visit to Korea, I reached out to renowned scholar Professor Noam Chomsky for a statement in support of our mission. Contrasting the significance of the April 27 Declaration between the two Koreas with the apparently incoherent foreign policy approach of the United States, which plays a dominant role in any prospect for inter-Korean peace, Chomsky commented:

The April 27 Declaration of the two Koreas was a historic event, which promises a bright future for the people of Korea. It calls for the two Koreas to settle their problems “on their own accord” and lays out a careful schedule to proceed, something quite new. It also calls on the international community (meaning Washington) to support this process. Unfortunately, the signals from Washington are at best mixed.  National Security Council advisor John Bolton, who has called for bombing North Korea at once, and Vice-President Mike Pence both invoked the “Libya model,” knowing full well its import. President Trump cancelled the Singapore summit a few hours after North Korea had destroyed its main testing site as an important gesture of conciliation. But these are pitfalls, not termination of the process. With determination and good will the two Koreas can move forward with the plans outlined in the Declaration. It is the task of the people of the United States to support them in this historic endeavor and to ensure that their own government does not undermine or in any way impede the process. That can succeed. It must succeed, for the welfare of Korea, and all of us.

Noam Chomsky is right in pointing out that this initiative carried forward by the two Koreas is in fact “something quite new.” The minimum that the United States can do at this historic moment is to refrain from harming the inter-Korean peace process. It’s time that American politicians, both Democratic and Republicans, give Koreans a chance to shape their own destiny.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from the Nobel Women’s Initiative

“We walk in the hope that we can move closer to the re-unification of Korea. We have always walked in the rain or shine. Let’s give power to women. Let’s walk.” – Young-Soo Han.

As the political situation on the Korean peninsula continues to shift, our #WomenPeaceKorea: A New Era delegation with Women Cross DMZ  spent the day demonstrating for peace and women’s representation in the process.

Photo courtesy of Women Cross DMZ

Our delegation of 30 women security experts and feminist peace activists from aroundthe world participated in the second historic  DMZ Peace Walk  today in Paju, South Korea. They marched alongside 1,200 South Korean women mobilizing for a peaceful resolution to the Korean conflict.

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“This strip of land symbolizes the longest division of a people, and it feels so amazing to be walking with 1,200 women to erase this division.” – Christine Ahn.

During the opening ceremonies we heard from Young-Soo Han, President of the National YWCA of Korea, about the significance of the march. The 5.5 km Peace Walk began by  crossing the Tongildaegyo  (Unification Bridge). As we walked we were told that this was the first time civilians had actually crossed the bridge on foot.

The march came just hours before it was announced that, despite American President Donald Trump’s Thursday cancellation of June’s Korea peace summit, South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un  on the North side of the DMZ to continue talks.

“The time for peace has come. Peace can only come if the people build it. But peace also needs political leaders. So we call on Kim, Moon and Trump to sign a peace treaty for the people of Korea and for the world.” – Mairead Maguire.

The Peace Walk ended in Dorasan Peace Park with a Women’s Peace Walk Declaration  reading and Peace Festival. Nobel peace laureate, Mairead Maguire, also spoke at the festival  to highlight the power of civilian peacebuilders and call world leaders back to the negotiating table.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)