http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p090114.htm&no=2&date=

Davao City (14 January) -- Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta is visiting Davao City today (January 14) to talk on "Is Long Lasting Peace an Attainable Dream?" at the Ateneo de Davao University slated at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

In a press release, Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) executive director Gus Miclat bared its proposal of asking President Horta to mediate in the Mindanao peace process.

The IID head believed that President Horta could contribute solve the peace problem in Mindanao with his experiences in resolving the similar conflict in East Timor. He was then considered one of the pillars who led East Timorese independence in 2002.

He did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing and his signal prestige and wisdom plus his impartiality can provide the stalled talks to a new whiff of energy and perhaps the corridor to an eventual agreement," said Miclat.

This event is but one of IID's initiatives to bring in more international actors in the peace process.

In the past month, the IID pushed the European Union to go beyond its concern for humanitarian crisis especially after the effects of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain dawned in the areas of conflict. IID asked the EU to be part of the International Monitoring Team to facilitate the peace process. (PIA) [top]