Philippines: Lumads to AFP, NPA: Leave us alone (tags)
MANILA, Philippines — A group claiming to represent 33 lumad (indigenous people) tribes in Mindanao on Friday urged the military and the rebel group New People's Army (NPA) to stop dragging them into their conflict and to respect their human rights and ancestral domain.
Paradise Lost: The Flip Side of Boracay Island, Philippines (tags)
“We’re following the due process. And yet this due process is giving advantage to the rich claimants who continue to occupy and build structures inside the Ancestral Land of the Atis in Boracay. We might end up without a land of our own.” – Delsa Justo, Chief of Boracay Ati Tribal Organization BATO)
Ranchers caught red-handed – from space (tags)
Wealthy landowners in Paraguay have been caught red-handed after newly-released satellite images showed their startling destruction of almost 4,000 hectares of forest – which is inhabited by uncontacted Indians.
Victory for Kalahari Bushmen as court grants right to water (tags)
In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal today quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands.
US-Aquino Regime Dismisses MILF Threats as “Posturings” (tags)
The Alliance News of the AJLPP noted today that in apparent bid to dismiss or ignore the warnings of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) warning that it is preparing for war in case the peace talks do not resume soon, the US-Aquino spokesman called the warnings “posturing.” “I guess it’s just posturing on their part,” said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. “We get positive information from them that they are also eager to pursue the peace process. “Maybe they are worried that the peace process wouldn’t push through,” Lacierda said of the remarks attributed to MILF chair Ebrahim Murad.
On the Ancestral Land MOA of the MILF and GRP and the Escalation of Hostilities (tags)
The Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front (CPDF) expresses deep concern and condemns the war of aggression being waged by the US-backed reactionary Armed Forces of the Philippines that has caused the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of both Christian and Moro people in Mindanao. It likewise condemns US direct intervention in the war-torn south.
Delay in peace talks deliberate, says MILF (tags)
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the country, accused Manila on Wednesday of delaying the peace talks. Manila is negotiating peace with the MILF, an army of about 12,000 rebels with millions of Muslim supporters. Peace talks were stalled after both sides failed to sign an agreement on the Muslim ancestral domain.
AFP: Peace pact with MILF by April (tags)
A peace agreement with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is expected early this year, Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. disclosed yesterday. "A final peace agreement with the MILF would be signed by March or April," Esperon told a press conference held at the AFP Eastern Mindanao Command headquarters here. The contentious issues affecting the peace negotiations, particularly disputes over ancestral domain, are now being discussed by both panels, said Esperon, who arrived here as part of a series of camp visits to implement the second phase of President Arroyo’s campaign against insurgency.
GRP-MILF talks deadlocked on ancestral domain (tags)
BACKDOOR peace negotiations between the largest separatist rebels and the government continue to be deadlocked over the issue of ancestral domain. Sources close to Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr. said Wednesday that the December 1 meeting between leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government negotiators in Malaysia failed to break the four-month impasse in the peace parley. “Technically, the deadlock stays because the two panels did not reach any settlement on the territorial domain,” the sources told The Manila Times.
MILF: WE ARE FOR NEW WAR (tags)
Media sources reported that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said yesterday that it was prepared to return to war should negotiations on territory, the thorniest of issues in ongoing peace talks with the government, lead to results not to its liking. Negotiations on territory, which documents on the peace talks describe as issues of ancestral domain, bogged down in Kuala Lumpur. More than 50,000 people died at the height of the Mindanao War just after Marcos declared martial law in 1972. In 2000, more than a million people were displaced when then President Joseph Estrada declared an “all-out war” policy aimed at dismantling MILF camps in Mindanao.
Genealogists call Bush and Kerry kin. Big Isle researchers claim the president and his top opponent are distant cousins.
Support the local indigenous people in Southern CA (tags)
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