Author(s):
Site Admin <webmaster2@icbl.org> .
Tuesday 18 November 2008
The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) announced on 11 November 2008 the signing by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of an agreement developed by PCBL called "Rebel Group Declaration of Adherence to International Humanitarian Law on Landmines".
The Revolutionary Workers Party of Mindanao (RPM-M), the Revolutionary Workers Party of the Philippines (RPM-P, Nilo de la Cruz faction); and the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP), signed the PCBL Declaration earlier in 2008. The MILF, RPM-M and a faction of the RPM-P are also signatories to the Deed of Commitment administered by Geneva Call which commits non-state armed groups to banning the use, production, acquisition and transferof antipersonnel mines, to destroying their antipersonnel mine stocks, and to facilitating mine action activities.
The PCBL Declaration is a public commitment by non-state armed groups to adhere to the key norms within existing international humanitarian law (IHL) on landmines, including those of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
The MILF declaration was signed by Atty. Lanang S. Ali, Vice-Chairman of the Maglis Al Shoorah (the MILF legislative body), and Sammy Al Mansor, Chief of Staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF, the MILF army), both representatives of the MILF Central Committee, on 21 October 2008.
The MILF agreement to the Declaration took place during armed hostilities which renewed in August 2008 as a result of a halt in activity toward a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the MILF. Since that time there have been media reports, sourced to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), alleging landmine use by the MILF.
More information:
Read the entire PCBL press release on the Nonviolence International website
Landmine Monitor Report 2007 - Philippines
