HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---------------------------
Sunday, January 20, 2002 5:43 PM
|
More U.S. Soldiers Arrive in Southern
Philippines |
|
Xinhuanet 2002-01-20
21:48:50 |
|
|
|
MANILA, January 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Thirty
more American soldiers
arrived in the southern Philippine city of
Zamboanga Sunday for
joint military exercises with Philippine
soldiers.
The American soldiers landed at the Edwin
Andrews Air Base in
Zamboanga from a U.S. military base in Okinawa,
Japan, aboard a U.
S. C-130 cargo plane, the Philippine News Agency
reported.
Coming together were communications,
construction and
engineering equipment for at least 660 U.S. soldiers
who would
take part in the controversial joint war games, dubbed
Balikatan
(shoulder to shoulder) 2002, which started last Tuesday in
the
southern Philippines.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has come under fire for the
unprecedented joint
military exercises, which would last six
months to one year and allow
American troops to fire back if
attacked in operations against the Abu
Sayyaf, which the United
States has listed as an international
terrorist group with links
to the al-Qaida network of Osama bin
Laden.
Critics said the exercises violated the country's
Constitution,
which bans the stationing of foreign troops in the
country. The
Congress has been urged to conduct a probe into the
legitimacy of
the joint exercises.
The government and
the military defended that the joint war
games are provided for by a
mutual defense treaty with the United
States forged in 1951 and the
Visiting Forces Agreement ratified
by the Senate in 1999.
Authorities said the U.S. troops came here only to train
the
local military in counter-terrorism and would not engage in
direct
combat operations against the Abu Sayyaf which is still holding
two American hostages.
Enditem
|
==^================================================================
This email was sent to: archive@jab.org
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D
Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
|
