Outgoing IMT peacekeepers honored in emotional farewell program

COTABATO CITY --- Malaysian peacekeepers on Monday bade residents here goodbye as they relinquished their peacekeeping missions to a new group of compatriots after a year-long deployment in flash point areas in Mindanao.The outgoing head of the 10thcontingent of the International Monitoring Team (IMT),Major Gen. Dato Sheik Mokhsin, turned over their blue mission banner to his successor, Major Gen. Datuk Wira Zamrose, during a symbolic transition rite in Cotabato City on Monday morning.Zamrose will lead the IMT’s 11thcontingent, which will monitor the ceasefire accord between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for one year starting this month.Zamrose was a commanding officer of an Army division in Malaysia prior to his designation as new chief of the Mindanao-based IMT. sand//scontent.fceb2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t34.0-12/12814103_10209077766569610_8740067154781556575_n.jpg?oh=ba1f3c941403d9857db996ed1899b5b3andampoe=56E7FF0E (Major Gen. Datuk Wira Zamrose (right) receive the mission banner of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team on Monday from compatriot Major Gen.Dato Sheik Mokhsin, whose group completed this month their year-long Mindanao peacekeeping assignment. JOHN UNSON) The IMT, comprised of military and police personnel from Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, has been helping enforce since early 2004 the government-MILF 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.The Malaysian-led IMT also has non-uniformed conflict resolution experts from Japan, Norway and the European Union.Mokhsin, whose team completed this month its year-long peacekeeping assignment in Mindanao, said the newly-installed IMT-11 will also support other bilateral peace-building activities of Malacañang and the MILF.The Malaysian government has been helping push the government-MILF peace overture forward since 2003 as third party facilitator.”