[Kabar-indonesia] 5, 700 US Troops to Join Major Philippines Military Exercises [+Moro/JI Link]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Philippine Moro front denies link with Al-Qa'idah, Jemaah Islamiyah;
and Philippines: Third Party Meddling in peace Process, Say Rebels

5,700 American troops to join major military 
exercises in Philippines, officials say

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer

MANILA, October 3 (AP) -- About 5,700 American military personnel will
join Filipino troops this month in major war drills, including
live-fire exercises, amphibious landings and ship interdictions, U.S.
and Philippine military officials said Tuesday.

Unlike recent training in the southern region of Mindanao, the new
joint exercises will not be aimed primarily at battling terrorism but
will focus on routine drills to enhance both militaries' capabilities
to operate together, U.S. Marine Capt. Burrell Parmer said.

The ground, air and sea maneuvers, called Talon Vision and Amphibious
Landing Exercise, will be held Oct. 16-31 in military camps and areas
on the main northern island of Luzon and in the southwestern province
of Palawan, officials said.

U.S. troops also plan humanitarian projects, including school
construction and medical missions.

Participants will train in interdicting, boarding and searching
vessels that could be used by terrorists and criminals, and about
1,000 Filipino troops hope to be exposed to America's high-tech
military equipment, said Philippine marine spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel
Caculitan.

"We conduct exercises to strengthen our ties and strengthen our
capabilities," Parmer said.

The U.S. troops will come from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade
based on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, and will include
sailors from the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group in Sasebo, Japan.

An initial group of 500 Americans was set to arrive Tuesday at the
Subic Bay free port, a former U.S. Naval base northwest of Manila,
Parmer said.

About 400 Philippine marines will be withdrawn from southern
Philippines' Jolo island where they have been helping in a massive
manhunt for al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas and Indonesian
militants to join the exercises, Caculitan said.

Since 2002, American troops have trained and armed Filipino soldiers
battling Muslim militants in Mindanao, which has become a crucial
front in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism due to the reported
presence of terror training camps run by Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant
group blamed for several deadly bombings in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. training has been credited with helping cripple Muslim
militants in the south, but has also been tainted by a rape scandal
involving four U.S. Marines who joined counterterrorism drills last
year.

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BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
October 3, 2006
Source: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
website Luwaran.com in English 1 Oct 06

Philippine Moro front denies link with Al-Qa'idah, Jemaah Islamiyah

Excerpt from report in English by Moro Islamic Liberation Front
website Luwaran.com on 1 October

Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation
Front] committee on information, denounced ABS-CBN for deliberately
allowing itself as a tool of demonic hands to defile the good name and
image of the MILF by repeatedly showing the documentary: "9/11: The
Philippine Connections". He said the MILF is a revolutionary movement
with a clear political agenda, which is to restore to the Bangsamoro
people their freedom and right to self-determination. The documentary
film is being anchored by Maria Ressa, former chief of CNN Jakarta
News Bureau, is now ABS-CBN vice-president. The documentary was shown
last year and twice or thrice, starting last 11 September, as part of
the annual commemoration of the terrorist attacks of the Twin Towers
in New York and Pentagon. It was reshown last night at 11.00 [local
time] and it will be shown again today.

Ressa, acting like a mega-expert on global terrorism, linked the MILF
to Al-Qa'idah and Jemaah Islamiyah as if she were personal witness to
these alleged connections and plots to commit acts of terrorism.
[passage omitted]

Musa stressed that nobody knew Al-Qa'idah and Jemaah Islamiyah before
11 September 2001 when the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked by
"terrorists" using commercial jetliners. He said the MILF had already
existed when Usamah Bin-Ladin was still a baby.

However, he said, granting the MILF has contact with Bin-Ladin in one
way or the other; will this also make the MILF a terrorist
organization?

"Sometimes, it is hard to choose whom to speak to when you are engaged
in a hard struggle like the MILF," he confessed.

He recalled during the Afghan war against the Soviets, Usamah
Bin-Ladin and the United States were "allies" in supporting the Afghan
resistance movement. [passage omitted]

On the Jemaah Islamiyah, Musa said they might have been in Mindanao,
for Indonesia is very close. But what is important is that the MILF
has no official tie-up with this group, or if it had some contacts,
the MILF does not know they are "JI terrorists".

Musa also had this to say: "Why do the seven (7) million or so Moros
suffer for 30 or even 300 Indonesians who are allegedly in their
midst?" "Does not Ressa know that the Moros have been brutally
subjected to all forms of injustices ever since?"

He asked Ressa that if she wants to pulverize the JI, she should
confront Indonesia, because the JI are Indonesians.

He also appealed to the ABS-CBN to observe ethics of good journalism
and to be fair to everybody and to the MILF by not subjecting it to
trial by publicity.

He said ABS-CBN should also give the MILF the opportunity to speak of
its side of the issue also.

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Philippines: Third Party Meddling in peace Process, Say Rebels

Cotabato City, 2 Oct. (AKI) - The largest Muslim rebel group in the Southern 
Philippines says a third party is trying to sabotage their Malaysian-brokered 
negotiation with Manila that recently hit an obstacle on territorial issues. 

In an interview on Monday, Eid Kabalu, spokesperson for the Moro Islamic 
Liberation Front (MILF), told Adnkronos International  (AKI) that skirmishes 
between presumed 'militants' and government forces on Sunday in the town of Matanog 
in Maguindanao, about 570 miles south of Manila, might have been carried out 
by a third party that opposes the ongoing peace talks. 

"Our fighters on the ground are ordered to strictly observe the cease-fire 
despite an impasse in the peace talks. So our group has nothing to do with the 
incident where armed men ambushed a group of soldiers," Kabalu told AKI. 

"Unless there's a thorough investigation over the matter, we are not 
excluding the possible involvement of a third group," he added. 

In a separate interview, Army Colonel Julieto Ando, spokesperson for the 
military's 6th Infantry Division, explained to AKI that suspected members of 
MILF's lost command ambushed a platoon of government troops who were conducting 
clearing patrol along the Secretary Narciso Highway, in Matanog town, at around 
12:00 noon on Sunday.      

A 20-minute exchange of fire ensued and five militants were injured before 
the attackers fled. No casualties on the government side were reported. 

"We continue to perform our job as law enforcers as mandated in the 
constitution.to neutralize local terrorists," Ando said, commenting on the encounter.

Kabalu said they have forces in Matanog and urged the military to coordinate 
with their cease-fire committee before conducting any operation on the ground, 
to prevent future clashes.

Manila and the MILF have been negotiating a peace agreement for some months, 
declaring many times to be close to a positive solution. Yet last month, both 
parties met in Kuala Lumpur for a round table discussion yet again failed to 
reach an agreement. 

The key stumbling block is the issue of the 'ancestral domains,' the name 
given to territories that originally belonged to the local Muslims. The ancestral 
domains will be placed under the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the 
probable name of the governing body of the new Muslim homeland.

The government offered the MILF control over 613 villages scattered all over 
Mindanao in addition to the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that 
covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-tawi 
and Marawi City. However, the MILF wants more. 

"There are other areas in Mindanao that are part of our ancestral domain," 
Mohaqher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator told AKI, refusing to divulge details. 

The Philippines government has vowed but failed to present a new proposal on 
September 30. But in a statement viewed by AKI, the government's peace adviser 
Jesus Dureza said "new perspectives" are being studied and crafted to resolve 
the impasse on the issue of territory that will be included in the propose 
Muslim homeland.

In the meantime, rebel chief Al Haj Ibrahim Murad has warned that the 
guerrillas group would be prepared for war if the issue of the ancestral domains 
remained unresolved. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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