From Mongolia, De Venecia calls for peace in RP, Georgia
MANILA, Philippines—Former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has added his voice to the calls to stop the fighting in Mindanao and urged the revival of the peace talks with the Moro secessionist rebels
In a press statement Sunday, De Venecia said he attended a gathering of political and civil society leaders in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, over the weekend and told journalists there that the revival of the peace talks in the southern Philippines should be combined “with a full-scale economic action program,” his “Mini Marshall Plan.”
This formula for peace, he said, “would benefit Muslim, Christian and tribal communities.”
The plan, he said, should be augmented by an interfaith Christian-Muslim dialogue to get the support of religious and civil society leaders.
De Venecia, addressing some 400 international political and civil society leaders in the Mongolian parliament, also talked about the peace efforts in the South Caucasus between Georgia and Russia.
The leaders were gathered in the Mongolian capital by the Economic Peace Council of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF).
De Venecia, according to the statement, suggested that more flexible “party-to-party” talks should complement rigid government-to-government negotiations.
He said he would ask Asia’s ruling and opposition political parties meeting in Pakistan next month to initiate such peace-making efforts between the leaders of Georgia and Russia.
The conflict in the Caucasus remains “tense and dangerous,” he said, and called for the full implementation of the French-initiated Russia-Georgia disengagement plan.
He said he would also present the need for dialogue at the International Conference of Asian Political Parties that will meet in Islamabad on Oct. 23 to 26 and at an Asia-Pacific conference in Mexico City on Nov. 6 to 9.
SOURCE: Philippine Daily Inquirer
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