New Peoples' Army ledes af Filippinernes Kommunistiske Parti,
og har i flere årtier ført en langvarig folkekrig mod Marcos-diktaturet
og efterføgernes proimperialistiske politik for at styrte den herskende
klasse og dens korrupte regimer.
Et interview med en kommandant fra befrielseshæren i det filippinske blad
Bulatlat.
Han understreger at øget amerikansk deltagelse i oprørsbekæmpelsen
kun vil resultere i 'et kraftigt opsving i de revolutionære aktiviteter
i Filippinerne. KP-Netavisen
A top NPA leader stresses that increased US involvement in
the counter-insurgency campaign will only result in a "resurgence in revolutionary
activities in the Philippines."
BY CARLOS H. CONDE
Bulatlat.com / MindaNews
COMPOSTELA VALLEY -- The United States's role in the Philippines's counter-insurgency
campaign is becoming increasingly significant - thanks, according to the New
People's Army in the Southern Mindanao region, to the "unabashed puppetry"
of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In a recent interview with journalists somewhere in the mountainous part of
this province, Ka (Comrade) Benjie, one of the leaders of the NPA's operational
command in the region called Merardo Arce Command, said the US -- in the guise
of going after terrorism - is getting more and more involved in the Philippines'
counter-insurgency campaign. This is done, he said, through the granting of
more military loan and aid packages to the Armed Forces of the Philippines as
well as the training of Filipino troops by American "advisers" in
supposed counter-terrorism.
"We can be sure that the engagement of US troops in the Philippines
will not be limited to the Abu Sayyaf," Ka Benjie said, pointing out
that the mainstream revolutionary movement in the country led by the Communist
Party of the Philippines and the NPA are fair game to the US, which earlier
classified the latter as a terrorist group.
The US's move to classify the NPA as a terrorist group is not actually new,
but in the context of the ongoing peace negotiations between the government
and the National Democratic Front, the umbrella group of national-democratic
forces in the Philippines, the classification puts the Arroyo administration
in a dilemma, mainly because it has a standing no-negotiation policy with alleged
terrorist groups. Indeed, both the NDF and Malacañang have announced
that the peace negotiations will resume in Oslo next month, thus deepening the
dilemma.
However, Ka Benjie said that the Arroyo administration only has itself to blame
for its predicament. "Because of the Arroyo administration's unabashed
puppetry to the US, it is bound to be put in contradictory and uncompromising
positions," he said.
Sabotage
Another significant implication of the US's intensifying involvement in the
country's counter-insurgency campaign, Ka Benjie said, is that the US will use
its anti-terrorism campaign as well as its military assistance to the Philippines
to sabotage the peace process. The objective, he said, is to "stop the
resurgence of anti-imperialist and anti-globalization" backlash all
over the world, particularly in Asia, and to ensure the continued reliance by
governments such as the Philippines' on US military assistance. The latter,
Ka Benjie said, is consistent with the Bush administration's policy of increased
military spending to boost the US economy that has been faltering of late.
But this US policy that is being enforced by the Arroyo administration, Ka Benjie
said, "will produce the opposite effect. Precisely because of these
US actions, we expect a resurgence in revolutionary activities in the Philippines."
Ka Benjie made these statements on December 26, the 33rd anniversary of the re-establishment of the CPP. The journalists were with the group of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who paid the NPA a visit in their territory in this province.
"The morale of the revolutionaries and the masses is high. The propaganda
by the military and the government that our number is dwindling cannot negate
this fact," Ka Benjie said. He attributed this to the Second Great
Rectification Movement launched by the movement in 1991. In his anniversary
message released on Thursday, CPP central committee chairman Armando Liwanag
boasted that the movement already has "more than 100 guerrilla fronts"
all over the country.
"No amount of US intervention can stem the tide of revolutionary fervor
in our country," Ka Benjie pointed out.
Military Package
After the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration
promised a military loan/aid package to the Philippines worth $100 million.
Some equipment, such as a new C130 plane and 16,000 pounds of weapons and ammunition,
have already been delivered to the Philippine government.
The granting of the package was part of the US government's campaign against
"world-wide terrorism." Immediately after the meeting with Bush in
November, Arroyo suddenly changed her tune and started referring to the Abu
Sayyaf as a "bunch of terrorists," whereas the standard line of Malacanang
pre-September 11 was that the bandits were just that - plain bandits.
But the most visible form of US engagement in the Philippines was the deployment
of US Special Forces troops to Mindanao to train Filipino soldiers in counter-terrorism,
specifically how to vanquish the Abu Sayyaf, which has remained scot-free despite
repeated promises by the AFP to destroy it.
The US troops arrived in trickles in Zamboanga City the past two months but
in mid-January, about 100 of them are expected to arrive there to start actual
training in the terrains of Western Mindanao and, according to military sources
in Zamboanga, "possibly Basilan," the biggest lair of the Abu Sayyaf.
The Americans will be armed, raising fears that they could end up engaging the bandits during the trainings, thus plunging the US deeper in its involvement in the Philippines while the Philippines would be confronted with constitutional questions. This brings to mind America's involvement - and subsequent blunder -- in Vietnam in the '60s.
"Their firearms are part of their uniforms, so we cannot expect them
not to carry those," said one AFP official in Manila. "If they're
going to be here alongside our troops, which is what it looks like they are
planning, it could be fairly risky," the Washington Post quoted an
anonymous military officer as saying. The same paper reported that US officials
have acknowledged the possibility that the US troops "may have to defend
themselves" if they are attacked by the Abu Sayyaf.
Adm. Dennis Blair, the commander of the US forces in the Pacific, told the Post
last week that the US training is "the largest and most comprehensive"
his country has done in Asia in recent years.
The Post also quoted Col. David Fridovich, one of the US military officials here, as saying that the Abu Sayyaf, which still holds two Americans hostage, is "a shared problem that requires a special degree of cooperation. We're going to help them (Filipinos) but it's for them to fight, not for us to fight."
During her visit to Bush in November, Arroyo reportedly turned down an offer
by the US president to send US grounds troops to Basilan and Jolo, pointing
out that it would be a violation of the Constitution. On Friday, this "offer"
was reiterated by US congressman Todd Tiahrt (Kansas), who came to the Philippines
to press Arroyo to use US ground troops. A Philippine Navy official said Tiahrt's
proposal is unnecessary.
US-trained
Be that as it may, the US troops might as well be the ones chasing the Abu Sayyaf.
The Southcom's Light Reaction Company, which has been tailing the Abu Sayyaf
since September 11 and which has engaged the bandits in a number of firefights,
was trained by US forces in Fort Magsaysay, in Nueva Ecija, before September
11. They are equipped with uniforms and weapons supplied by the US military.
Col. Roy Cimatu, the commander of the AFP's Southern Command, conceded the difficulty in going after the bandits, mainly because of the terrain. The military, he said, would need sophisticated equipment to crush the bandits once and for all. These equipment can only come from the US. And these equipment - such as the Black Hawk helicopter that is capable of flying at nighttime, one of which the US military has reportedly committed to lend to the Philippines - can only be flown by American troops, at least in the short term.
This again raises the possibility of more direct US engagement in the campaign against the Abu Sayyaf. And to the NPA, this engagement will not stop with the demise of the Abu Sayyaf. "If the US is engaged in the campaign against a small group of bandits such as the Abu Sayyaf, how much more against the NPA with its clear resurgence of mass base and a clear anti-imperialist line?" Ka Benjie said.
Bulatlat.com/MindaNews
Den
originale artikel
Tidsskriftet Bulatlat
Netavisen 9. januar 2001