Child killed during government offensive in Philippines

By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: February 22, 2009

MANILA: A 16-month-old child was killed and several people were wounded during a government offensive that was believed to have been part of preparations for scheduled military exercises between Filipino and U.S. soldiers, the largest human rights group in the Philippines said Sunday.

The child, Rafaela Polborido, died after soldiers hit her family’s home with grenades on Feb. 19 in a village in Bicol, a region southeast of Manila, according to John Concepcion, secretary general for Bicol of the human rights group Karapatan. He said that eight civilians, including five children, were wounded.

Major Ramon Zagala, a military spokesman, said there would be an investigation into the child’s death.

About 2,500 Filipino soldiers and an estimated 6,000 U.S. troops, including about 400 engineers and medical personnel, will take part in the April exercises, Zagalo said.

Combat exercises will be held in Subic and Clark, the two former U.S. military facilities north of Manila. Groups opposed to the exercises have scheduled protest actions beginning Monday.

Concepcion said that the Philippine military had been conducting “clearing operations” in the provinces of Albay, Sorsogon and Masbate, adding that the operations were intended to flush out insurgents in areas where the exercises were to be held. Concepcion said his group had documented cases of assault, forced dislocations, destruction of property and harassment of civilians, particularly people that the military suspected of being “Communist sympathizers.”

The Bicol region, made of several poor, agricultural provinces in the eastern Philippines, is a stronghold of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The military exercise has caused concern that the United States is being drawn into Philippine counterinsurgency operations. Previous exercises, known as Balikatan, have been held in the southern Philippines, where extremists and terrorist groups operate.

Although officials insist that the exercises in the Bicol region would mainly be humanitarian in nature, some residents are not convinced.

“It would be naïve of us to think that the U.S. Special Forces came here to Bicol just to play doctors and dentists,” said Jocelyn Bisuña, spokeswoman of the Bicol group Ban Balikatan.

Zagala disputed the characterization of the exercise by Karapatan and other rights groups, and he said it was unfair of critics to link present military operations to the Balikatan exercises. “The Balikatan exercises are part of our humanitarian effort,” he said. “We will handle the New People’s Army separately.”

Peace activist kidnapped in southern Philippines

By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: February 13, 2009

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines: A Sri Lankan peace activist was kidnapped Friday by suspected Islamic militants in a remote southern Philippines village, the latest in a series of abductions in the region, officials said.

The police said Umar Jaleel, an activist with an international nongovernmental organization called Nonviolent Peaceforce, was abducted by armed men near Lamitan City, on Basilan Island.

Officials said it was too early to attribute the kidnapping to the Abu Sayyaf, the terrorist group that, on Jan. 15, abducted three Red Cross volunteers on the adjacent island of Sulu.

Nine armed men ransacked the house where Jaleel, 36, was staying around 3 a.m. Friday and shot at one of the victim’s companions, who escaped unharmed, said Alexander Pama, commander of the Western Mindanao Naval Forces, whose men are involved in the operations to locate Jaleel.

In a statement, Nonviolent Peaceforce said “the motive for his abduction is not known, nor is the affiliation, if any, or identity of his captors.” It added that “Nonviolent Peaceforce does not pay ransom and requests all parties concerned to seek a nonviolent return.”

Nonviolent Peaceforce describes itself as a “nonpartisan unarmed peacekeeping force composed of trained civilians from around the world” who, through nonviolent means, work to protect human rights and promote peacekeeping in local communities.

Al-Rasheed Sakalahul, the vice governor of Basilan, said naval and army forces were working to recover Jaleel. Apart from the Sri Lankan, four Filipinos have been abducted on Basilan in the past month alone.

The Philippine military has, in recent days, stepped up operations to locate the kidnapped Red Cross volunteers – a Filipino, a Swiss and an Italian – and had killed some militants in the process. Military officials said this week that the victims were unharmed.

There were reports last week that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $5 million, but the Red Cross and the Philippine government have reiterated their respective no-ransom policies.

Jaleel’s abduction has prompted several legislators to begin an inquiry into the series of kidnappings in the south. “We want to know why these kidnappings continue to happen despite efforts by the government to curb it,” said Mujiv Hataman, a Muslim congressman from Basilan.

“We will summon local politicians and police officials to shed light on this,” Hataman said, adding that many of the recent cases of kidnappings occurred in cities and town centers, not in the hills and mountains, indicating a boldness on the part of the kidnappers.

Military officials said this past week that the kidnappers of the Red Cross volunteers had links with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network.