Communist rebels worried over US role in counterinsurgency
MANILA, Philippines (AP)-- Communist guerrillas in the Philippines on Tuesday expressed concern that the United States would take a more direct role in fighting the long-running insurgency.
Manila has acknowledged receiving "intelligence input" from the US, which maintains military advisers in the southern Philippines, that led to the killing of the two senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group over the past two months.
The US role in the strikes against the Abu Sayyaf could become "an entry point for its more strategic perspective of applying this in increasingly greater scale" against the leftist rebels, their spokesman Gregorio Rosal said.
In a statement, Rosal alleged that the Pentagon was exploiting military exercises with Filipino forces in the Philippines as well as apparent "humanitarian assistance."
"US military forces have repeatedly trespassed in revolutionary areas where New People's Army (NPA) forces are strong, to gain intelligence data and familiarity with the physical and social terrain," he added.
The 7,000-member NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. It has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969. Both groups are listed in the US State Department's "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist.
On Monday President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hailed the "strategic alliance" between Manila and Washington, its former colonial ruler, as key to defeating terrorism.
"Our strategic relationship with the United States has always been a leading point for Philippine and regional security," she said in a statement.
"Our victories against the Abu Sayyaf highlight the success of our training and intelligence fusion programs with the United States, and these are reinforced by broader programs of peace and development, trade and investment that enlarge the space of Philippine security while constricting the space for terror and transnational crime."
The military announced this month that it had killed key Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sulaiman, whom it said was the architect of the firebombing of a ferry on Manila Bay in February 2004 that claimed more than 100 lives.
US forensics authorities also recently confirmed that the body of an Abu Sayyaf militant who was killed on the southern island of Jolo in December was that of top Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani.
Manila has acknowledged receiving "intelligence input" from the US, which maintains military advisers in the southern Philippines, that led to the killing of the two senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group over the past two months.
The US role in the strikes against the Abu Sayyaf could become "an entry point for its more strategic perspective of applying this in increasingly greater scale" against the leftist rebels, their spokesman Gregorio Rosal said.
In a statement, Rosal alleged that the Pentagon was exploiting military exercises with Filipino forces in the Philippines as well as apparent "humanitarian assistance."
"US military forces have repeatedly trespassed in revolutionary areas where New People's Army (NPA) forces are strong, to gain intelligence data and familiarity with the physical and social terrain," he added.
The 7,000-member NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. It has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969. Both groups are listed in the US State Department's "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist.
On Monday President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hailed the "strategic alliance" between Manila and Washington, its former colonial ruler, as key to defeating terrorism.
"Our strategic relationship with the United States has always been a leading point for Philippine and regional security," she said in a statement.
"Our victories against the Abu Sayyaf highlight the success of our training and intelligence fusion programs with the United States, and these are reinforced by broader programs of peace and development, trade and investment that enlarge the space of Philippine security while constricting the space for terror and transnational crime."
The military announced this month that it had killed key Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sulaiman, whom it said was the architect of the firebombing of a ferry on Manila Bay in February 2004 that claimed more than 100 lives.
US forensics authorities also recently confirmed that the body of an Abu Sayyaf militant who was killed on the southern island of Jolo in December was that of top Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani.
posted by Marko at 1/23/2007 08:02:00 AM
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