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Peace process · report
The Journey of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s First Ex-Combatants
- Year
- 2015
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 56
- ISBN
- 9789996381799
- Availability
- Free to read
Published free: the link opens the whole book.
About the book
Interviews with 10 of the 145 MILF fighters who handed in their weapons at the first decommissioning, in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, in June 2015, on the lives they hoped to build.
On 16 June 2015, at the old Capitol Building in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, 145 combatants of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces were registered in the first phase of MILF decommissioning, under the Annex on Normalisation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. In late July the MILF invited the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies to interview 10 of them.
The book sets out what these men said, in 7 short chapters named after their own words, from "The conflict disturbed our lives" to "We are still waiting for the assistance to come, for our lives to change" and "It is peacetime now". They talk about the war, memories of the struggle, their commitment to the peace process and their hopes for civilian life. The preface says the aim was to help them move from a story of conflict to a story of peace, and argues that decommissioning is a means to a different life, not an end in itself.
Nerea Bilbatúa conceived and wrote the book, with photographs by Toto Lozano and Karlos Manlupig. The British Embassy in Manila funded it.
Peace processWar and conflictMemoir and biography
Cover from the publisher’s PDF, shown to identify the book; its rights stay with the publisher.
On the same shelf
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Kalinaw MindanawB. R. (Rudy) Rodil
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