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On Saturday, the deployment was halted after the two countries’ defense secretaries, Donald Rumsfeld and Angelo Reyes, failed to reach an agreement on the specific role of the American troops. The 1,700-member force planned for the Philippines would have included 350 Special Operations officers supported by Cobra attack helicopters and Harrier fighter planes. An additional 300 advisors would have trained the Filipino army in special operations. The constitution of the Philippines keeps any foreign troops from taking an active part in fighting on Filipino soil, and the country’s Supreme Court has ruled that U.S. troops are only allowed to fire in self-defense. However, there is a constitutional clause allowing foreign troops to provide assistance in a Filipino-led campaign. Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will now move her efforts towards phrasing the U.S. mission in terms that will convince the country’s Supreme Court that the U.S. is supporting, rather than leading, the mission against the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The mission aimed to open a new front on the war against terror by challenging Abu Sayyaf. U.S. experts say the group has active ties with Al-Qaeda, although these connections have never been proven. Abu Sayyaf is believed to have about 250 active fighters and is mainly active on the Island of Jolo in the Southern province of Sulu. Two years ago, it made headlines by taking over a hundred hostages, mainly foreign tourists, and killing 18 of them. Abu Sayyaf is a small,
extremist wing of a much broader movement for self-determination for the
predominantly Muslim population of the Moro Islands. The region, which
is rich in natural resources, has traditionally been suppressed and exploited
by the small Filipino elite that controls the state. Since the 1970’s,
the movement has been divided into moderate and more radical elements.
The moderates are willing to settle for autonomous status, while the more
radical elements see themselves in a holy war for an independent Muslim
state in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. America and the
Phillipines, together again Incorporating American troops in active combat is the Bush Administration’s attempt to mitigate a conflict that has increased in intensity after a ceasefire between the government and the rebels was broken scarcely two weeks ago. This downturn raises the question of whether U.S. efforts to fight terror in the Philippines will mitigate the conflict or merely exacerbate anti-Western sentiments in the region. On Tuesday, as-of-yet unidentified attackers bombed the airport in Davao, the second largest city in the Philippines and the largest in the Moro Islands. The attack, which left at least 18 dead, illustrates the increasingly violent character of separatist insurgency in the region. The dual movement of Westernizing governments and radicalizing opposition groups has left little room for diplomatic middle ground, compelling the White House to intervene in order to suppress insurgency and maintain stability. The Filipino government
has failed to weaken Abu Sayyaf on its own. In part, this is because of
the organization’s tenacity, as well as the historically low popularity
of the U.S. government in the region, and the subsequent support the Muslim
population has shown towards the secessionist movement. The movement’s
legitimacy can be attributed to growing fears among the Muslim population
of losing their cultural and religious identity in the wake of an unremitting
influx of what they consider Christian colonizers, who have been coming
from the mainland since the country became independent. Many Muslims in
the south see the Filipino government as a hostile and foreign cultural
force that represents mainly foreign interests. This claim is bolstered
by the large role Western multinational corporations have played in the
country’s recent economic development. Interestingly, the EU has
actually overtaken the U.S. in terms of foreign direct investment—EU
investment accounts for roughly one quarter of the $1.49 billion that
came into the country in 2000. The colonial past… Many of the Filipino fighters were members of the Islamic tribe of the Tausug, from the island of Jolo. U.S. troops under the command of General John Pershing killed thousands of members of the tribe, many of them women and children, during the independence struggle. After suppressing the rebels, the U.S. ruled the Philippines directly from 1901 to 1935. During this time, the U.S. fortified the exploitative economic system the Spanish colonial power had erected with the help of a small, cooperative local elite. In 1935 the country became an independent commonwealth state, only to be colonized again by the Japanese a few years later and ruled until the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II. In 1947, the country finally gained its independence, only to lose it again in the 1965 U.S.-backed military coup of Ferdinand Marcos, whose dictatorial regime lasted another 21 years. A memorandum from the Nixon era placed U.S. support of the Marcos regime in the context of the struggle against communism. Marcos declared martial law on September 22, 1972, in response to unrest that was focused in the southern Islamic provinces. Nixon stated that, “If he can maintain law and order…Marcos may be able to achieve continuing public support for his efforts. Should he fail, the general economic, social and political condition of the Philippines will deteriorate to a point close to chaos and/or revolution.” Marcos left the country in disgrace (he was airlifted out of the country by U.S. helicopters—a symbolic image not likely lost on the Filipino public) after a fraudulent election he claimed to have won, and the presidency was transferred to opposition leader Corazon Aquino. In her six years in office, Aquino began to rebuild the democratic structures that Marcos had destroyed, ended separatist insurgencies through peace negotiations, and presided over the commission that wrote the progressive, anti-imperialist Filipino constitution. Aquino’s successor,
Fidel Ramos, returned to a more authoritarian-conservative style of rule,
as did Joseph Estrada, former actor and vice president under Ramos, who
came to power in 1998. Ramos was succeeded in creating economic growth
by opening the Filipino economy to the Western world—the country
has since become more economically autonomous, albeit still heavily fueled
by U.S. investment. …and the future Resolution of the recent conflicts must address the complex mixture of religious, ethnic, and economic issues at work. The fragmented nature of the Islamic movement, which ranges from separatist to autonomous, and uses tactics ranging from terrorism and political lobbying, makes it difficult to simply integrate the interests of southern Muslims into the national democratic system—those interests are manifold and often contradictory, and the extreme elements oppose any form of integration. Despite the complexities of public opinion, Filipinos are relatively united in their wariness of American intervention. This will make a military solution backed by the former colonial power difficult at best, disastrous at worst. While America presses the Philippines to allow its troops to assume a more active role in the fight against terrorism, Filipino officials hope that attacking the most extreme elements of the separatist movement will convince more moderate Muslim groups that violent resistance is not productive. Defense Secretary Reyes, acknowledging public opposition to U.S. military action, told reporters last week, “The sensibilities of the people of the Philippines will be given maximum consideration.’’ Such consideration must include a commitment to acknowledging the validity of these groups’ grievances if the government is to counteract the uproar caused by proposed U.S. military activity, and if it is to convince Filipinos that the war on terror is not an affront to minority cultures, but a step toward stabilizing the region. Ivo Mijnssen B’05
has a Swiss bank account. Do you still trust him? |
copyright © 2002, The College
Hill Independent
last updated 03 05 03
