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Out Now! Mindanao
US Troops Out Now!-Mindanao
Press Statement
August 21, 2008
OUT NOW! questions US troops involvement in Philippine Army operations in
Baliki, Midsayap
The US Troops Out Now Coalition-Mindanao questions the presence of US
troops involved in actual combat operations in pursuit of Moro rebels in
Mindanao.
Philippine military operations have involved American soldiers that were
reportedly commissioned to detonate unexploded bombs in Baliki, Midsayap,
North Cotabato last week.
The American soldiers were sighted by a Mindanews news team who chanced
upon parked vehicles bearing VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement) plates in
Midsayap. The team reported seeing four American soldiers in a hilly
portion of Barangay Baliki, near a detachment of the 38th Infantry
Battalion, Philippine Army on August 17. Government air strikes against
MILF positions, the report said, had started on August 10.
Next to the February 4 massacre in Maimbung, Sulu where residents claimed
to have seen US soldiers accompanying local troops in military operations,
the Baliki incident is another proof that the United States has been
engaged in actual military intervention in Mindanao wars.
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While Philippine Army
officials try to justify the US troops' participation as mere assistance
in ordinance disposal, this shows that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)
is blurring the distinction between 'exercise' and 'actual combat' to
legally justify permanent American presence and engagement in Mindanao.
Government's failure to disclose to the public the Terms of Reference (TOR)
governing the presence of US troops in Mindanao, including the docking of
US warships like the USS Vandegrift in March this year, is highly suspect.
Out Now!-Mindanao is apprehensive that US military presence is part of the
US government's double-edged policy of engagement with the MILF. While it
facilitates peace negotiations and provides post-settlement aid package on
one hand, it is engaged in counter-insurgency pursuit operations in the
guise of counter-terrorism on the other.
We call for appropriate Senate and Congressional investigations into
increasing US military involvement in Mindanao and US meddling in the
GRP-MILF peace negotiations. The VFA clearly surrenders our national
sovereignty and is being used to legalize the wanton exercise of US
hegemony in the Philippines through terror-mongering.
Bishop Felixberto Calang
Convenor
Mobile 09189294244 |
