Nobel laureate offers help in talks

Lord David Trimble. YouTube video grab

MANILA, Philippines—A British expert on peace negotiations on Friday lauded the progress in the talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as he offered to share his experience in resolving the Northern Ireland conflict in hopes of giving “more confidence” to the parties involved.

Lord David Trimble, a member of the British House of Lords and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has met with government officials and is set to fly to Cotabato City this weekend to engage with ranking MILF officials.

“I think achieving the framework agreement is a huge step forward. It think it’s really quite hopeful here,” Trimble said in a press briefing on Friday.

Trimble, the first Minister of Northern Ireland, arrived earlier this week for a five-day visit which will culminate on Saturday in meetings with members of the MILF central committee.

He was instrumental in brokering the peace pact between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in 1998, ending decades of civil strife that killed at least 3,600 and injured 30,000.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year along with John Hume, also a key figure in the peace talks.

“I would not for one moment suggest that you know, because we did something in our process that you ought to be doing the same thing here,” Trimble said.

“Given the situation here, you’ve got to look very carefully at particular circumstances, the various groups that are involved and design your process with primary regard to the structures and situation and realities here,” he added.

Since UK has been a strong supporter of the peace process and a member of the International Contact Group monitoring the efforts, Trimble’s visit to Manila had been planned even before the historic signing of the framework agreement between the government and the MILF.

“We’re really careful not to suggest that the solutions can be found in the Northern Ireland peace process but where there are pointers, experiences that could be helpful, we’d love to share them. For that reason, we’ve been planning to get Lord Trimble out here for some time,” said Thomas Phipps, Second Secretary for political and security affairs of the UK Embassy in Manila.

Armed groups, local administration

Trimble said that while the Northern Ireland and GPH-MILF peace process had differences, the two were similar in that the talks both involved armed groups and the establishment of a local or regional administration.

He said his presence in the Philippines was not meant to impose the UK point of view on the issue but rather to encourage both parties to push ahead with the negotiations.

“We’re not here to tell people what to do. We’re just here to say… we ought to describe what our situation was when we’ve managed it and help them in sorting out what has to be the Filipino solution to the problems here,” Trimble said.

“All I can do is to talk about experience that might be helpful and also give them more confidence,” he added.

Trimble met earlier this week with Vice President Jejomar Binay, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles and members of the Senate.