COTABATO CITY, Philippines

BRUNEI Darussalam now officially plays a dual role in the Mindanao peace process.

This after the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels finally constituted the International Decommissioning Body (IDB), which is also composed of experts from Turkey and Norway.

Brunei is a member of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, whose task is to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, since 2004.

Prof Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, GPH peace panel chairperson, announced on Sunday they have formalised the bodies that will be involved in the normalisation process in a meeting in Kuala Lumpur that started on Saturday.

Ferrer said the parties welcomed the three foreign experts who will sit in the IDB, which shall oversee the process of decommissioning of the MILF forces and their weapons.

She identified them as Major Muhammad Aiman Syazwi bin Haji Abdul Rahim from Brunei, Ambassador Haydar Berk from Turkey, and Jan Erik Wilhemsen from Norway.

The peace panels have yet to name the four local experts that will complete the seven-member body.

“‎We thank the governments of Brunei, Turkey and Norway for providing us with the valuable services of their respective experts. Decommissioning is a delicate and difficult component of any peace settlement. It must be done effectively and sensitively. It is an affirmative support to the normalisation process and will contribute to advancing collective security in the future Bangsamoro region and the country as a whole,”‎ Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement.

The IDB shall perform functions that include the conduct of inventory, verification and validation of Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) members, arms and weapons; develop and implement a schedule of decommissioning of BIAF forces; plan, design, and implement techniques and technologies for weapons collection or retrieval, transport, and storage and putting weapons beyond use in accordance with the ‎agreement of the parties; and report on the progress of its work and submit its report to the GPH and MILF panels.

‎Aside from the IDB, the two other bodies integral to the normalisation process include the Joint Normalisation Committee (JNC), which will coordinate the different normalisation processes and mechanisms; and the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), which will undertake a study and recommend to the panels the appropriate mechanisms for transitional justice and reconciliation. The formalisation of the bodies in the normalisation process came as Congress started deliberations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which will entrench the Bangsamoro region and abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. “The normalisation process will be implemented simultaneously with the political process,” Coronel-Ferrer said.

The Brunei Times