| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines rebukes U.S over 'Afghanistan' comparison |
| 2005-04-12 |
| The Philippines summoned the second-highest ranking US official in the country on Tuesday to protest over remarks he made comparing the volatile southern island of Mindanao with Afghanistan. The Philippine Foreign Affairs Department handed Joseph Mussomeli, the US embassy's charge d'affaires, a strongly-worded protest describing his comments as "grossly inaccurate, patently unfair and prejudicial". Mr Mussomeli told reporters after a 15-minute meeting with a Foreign Ministry official that he had been misunderstood. "There's nothing to apologise for," he said. "That is not what I said - there is not a single criticism of the Philippine Government or the Philippine people." In a transcript of Mr Mussomeli's interview with SBS Television last week that was posted on the US embassy website, he said: "The threat is more long term - that Mindanao is such a lawless, certain portions of Mindanao, are so lawless, so porous the borders that you run the risk of it becoming like an Afghanistan situation". Mindanao is home to several home-grown Muslim rebel groups, which security forces suspect have links with foreign Islamic militant groups such as the regional Jemaah Islamiah network. Parts of the island are controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group that is due to resume peace talks with the Government in the coming weeks to end a three-decade-old conflict. On Monday, dozens of US Army commandos returned to Basilan island off the southern Mindanao coast to hold a three-week anti-terrorism exercise with about 100 Philippine troops. About 1,200 US troops were based in Basilan, a stronghold of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, from February to July 2002 to help Philippine troops hunt down an Abu Sayyaf group holding two American missionaries. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |