Peace overture or all out-war?
While the U. S. government is pursuing the signing of the peace agreement between the GRP and the MILF and has set a timetable up to June 2008, the increasing presence of U.S. troops and their alarming involvement in military operations against alleged Muslim terrorists alarmed human rights watchdogs in Mindanao.
According to the Kawangib Moro Human Rights group, when the U.S. declared Mindanao as the “Second Front” in its “War against Terror” in 2002, an undetermined number of U.S. forces have been deployed in the Moro areas.
In 2002, the U.S. started deploying 660 personnel based in the Joint Operations Task Force base in Camp Navarro in Zamboanga City and an additional 160 U.S. troops in Basilan for the RP-U.S. Balikatan exercises.
The human rights group noticed that the modifications done to the Terms of Reference of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) gave license to the U.S. government to deploy more American troops. Aside from 1,000 regular troops participating in military exercises, the U.S. regularly deploys 160 Special Forces, 340 Seabees and Marine guards in Basilan and 440 U.S. personnel and training staff in Zamboanga.
The Moro human rights group said there was an occasion when over 5,000 U.S. troops arrived in Mindanao for undisclosed reasons. Last year, it said some 340 troops were stationed in Zamboanga in a span of five months, in clear violation of the VFA.
In 2002, a U.S. soldier shot and wounded Buyong-Buyong Isnijal, a Basilan farmer. The incident exposed the direct involvement of U.S. troops in military counter insurgency and anti-terror operations in the island province of Sulu.
After the shooting incident, the role of U.S. troops in subsequent Balikatan exercises was limited to the conduct of medical civic action and trainings in Sirawi, Zamboanga del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan and North Cotabato.
But Kawangib said the order to restrict U.S. troops to purely civic action was done only in paper. In November 2006, U.S. soldiers were seen with government troops joining the offensive against the MNLF base of Sulu State Revolutionary Chair in Indanan, Sulu. They were again sighted in an AFP operation against the MILF in Midsayap this year.
Reports also confirmed the presence of U.S. troops in different parts of Lanao del Sur during the May 2007 national and local elections. Also U.S. troops based for six months inside the 102nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army in Malungon, Sarangani province.
The American troops were told to leave by Sarangani Gov. Miguel Dominguez after complaints were filed against their presence inside the Philippine military camp.
Kawangib likewise questioned the presence of an undetermined number of U.S. spies, including members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and forensic experts who immediately “offer” their services whenever a bomb blows up in different malls, markets and bus stations in Central Mindanao and Davao.
“But they failed to offer an explanation as to why an American national believed to be working for the Central Intelligence Agency was found with bombs in his hotel room when he accidentally blew one of the bombs in March 2003. Agent Michael Meiring was taken by FBI agents from his hospital bed and flown by a military helicopter to Manila,” the Moro human rights center said.
Link to exploitation of mineral resources
Political groups supportive of the Moro people had been asserting that the ultimate agenda of the U.S. government is for the MILF to sign a final peace agreement with the Macapagal-Arroyo government this year to protect the transnational interests of the U.S. in Southern Philippines.
The same motive was said to apply to other foreign powers like Japan, Canada and the European Union, which are involved in the International Monitoring Team (IMT). They are allegedly interested in partaking of the rich natural resources of Mindanao.
