Group: U.S. GIs Caught Fighting in Philippines
Pastor Dale Morgan
Group: U.S. GIs Caught Fighting in Philippines*
By OLIVER TEVES
The Associated Press
Monday, January 15, 2007; 5:47 AM
MANILA, Philippines -- U.S. troops, in possible violation of the
Philippines' constitution, have taken part in combat operations against
guerrillas linked to al-Qaida, an activist group said in a report Monday.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop disputed the allegation.
"Visiting U.S. troops in the Philippines advise, assist, share
information with their Philippine counterparts, but they do not engage
in combat and they have no direct role in combat operations. Any combat
operations are 100 percent Filipino," he told The Associated Press.
The group Focus on the Global South, citing a number of U.S. military
writings, doctrines and eyewitness accounts to back its claim, said an
independent investigation should be conducted to determine whether the
alleged combat operations violated the Philippine constitution.
The U.S. Special Forces contingent has been deployed in the south since
2002, nearly a year after the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf
kidnapped three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort. One of the
Americans was beheaded soon after the kidnapping and another was killed
during a military rescue operation the following year.
Lussenhop said the number of Special Forces troops average "no more than
a few hundred at any one time."
Herbert Docena, who wrote the report for the activist group that
promotes human rights and fair trade, said U.S. troops may also be
violating the Philippine constitutional ban on the stationing of foreign
military bases in the country since the they have not left the south
since they arrived five years ago.
Lussenhop, however, said the facilities and camps being used by the
Americans were only temporary.
The U.S. military presence in this former American colony is a sensitive
issue, heightened following the recent conviction of a U.S. Marine on
rape charges. The Marine was not part of the U.S. task force.
Docena said eyewitnesses claim to have seen U.S. troops near
hostilities, operating military equipment, defusing land mines and
performing other war-related activities. U.S. troops also operate spy
planes over areas of hostilities, including one unmanned aircraft that
crashed last year, he said.
Philippine Senator Rodolfo Biazon, head of the Senate defense committee,
said U.S. troops are explicitly banned from joining Filipino troops on
combat patrols or operations.
U.S. forces, however, are allowed to fire back if they come under
attack, he said.
Meanwhile, the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group on Monday
protested several members' arrests related to bombings last Wednesday.
They warned that the arrests could hurt efforts to end two decades of
separatist rebellion.
Police said they filed an illegal possession of explosives complaint
against four suspects, including two identified by the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, or MILF, as its members.
The blasts in the southern cities of General Santos, Kidapawan and
Cotabato killed seven people and wounded 44 others.
Philippine security officials have accused the MILF of having ties with
the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, but
Muslim rebel leaders have denied such links.