IN THIS ISSUE of Focus o­n Trade, we report o­n the just completed Peace Mission to the southern Philippine regions of Zamboanga and Basilan. The fourteen-member team, which spent five days in the field and released its preliminary findings (see below) in Manila o­n 27 March, included human rights activists, parliamentarians, journalists and academics from Asia, Europe and the US.

The Peace Mission was organised by the Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party (Philippines), Focus o­n the Global South (Thailand) and the Institute for Popular Democracy (Philippines). We would like to thank 11.11.11 (Belgium), Oxfam Solidarity (Belgium), Novib (Netherlands), InterPares (Canada) and Oxfam Hong Kong for supporting this project. The team members are listed at the end of the preliminary report.

As a footnote to this report, the CIA last week cited as “evidence” of the link between the Abu Sayyaf and al Qaeda, the fact the kidnappers always ask for the ransom in US dollars!

Also in this issue, Nicola Bullard looks at the disagreements between the major shareholders leading-up to the Spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

But first, Neta Golan, an Israeli and o­ne of forty international activists who have occupied Yasser Arafat’s besieged office in Ramallah as a “human shield” asks how many international laws does Israel need to break before the United Nations demands a full and immediate Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank?
IN THIS ISSUE

THE WORLD JUST WATCHES
Neta Golan

REPORT FROM BASILAN
Victoria Brittain

THE PUPPET MASTER SHOWS HIS HAND
Nicola Bullard

INTERNATIONAL PEACE MISSION VISIT TO BASILAN AND ZAMBOANGA
Preliminary Findings