RP VERIFIES PINOY ROLE IN IRAQ INSURGENCY
MANILA, March 29, 2005 (STAR) The Philippines is verifying with the Iraqi military a report that Filipinos were among insurgents killed in a United States-backed assault last week in Iraq, the foreign affairs department said yesterday.
Malacañang has expressed concern over reports that Filipinos were among the suspected insurgents killed in the assault.
However, the Palace has withheld any official comment until the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) verifies the report.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said there was cause for concern over the matter and that Malacañang had ordered the DFA to obtain a full report on the assault.
Iraqi commandos, backed by US air and ground fire, assaulted a rebel training camp in the country’s central region last Tuesday, killing 85 suspected insurgents and resulting in one of the largest guerrilla death tolls in a single battle of the two-year insurgency.
Among the insurgents killed were Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs, an Iraqi military official, Maj. Gen. Rashid Feleigh, told Iraqi state television last week.
"The Philippine Embassy in Baghdad is inquiring with Iraqi military authorities for confirmation of that report," said Gilbert Asuque, DFA spokesman.
"We want to have the basic facts before even venturing into the security implications of this," Asuque told The Associated Press by telephone.
Asuque said in a press briefing that the DFA could not yet confirm whether Filipinos were among the insurgents killed in the assault until the Philippine embassy in Baghdad gets a report and confirmation from the Iraqi military.
He also said DFA undersecretary for special concerns Rafael Seguis and embassy Charge d’Affaires Ricardo Endaya were set to meet with officials of the Iraqi Interior Ministry yesterday afternoon to obtain the report and verify the nationalities of those killed in the assault. Seguis heads the team negotiating for the safe release of kidnapped Filipino accountant Roberto Tarongoy.
Endaya is already coordinating with the Interior Ministry of Iraq regarding the matter, Asuque said, adding that both Endaya and Seguis are "still awaiting the report of the Iraqi military authorities. They said they need information directly from the Iraqi military command. We have to be accurate with our reports."
Asuque said the Iraqi Interior Ministry is also awaiting the field report of its commanders in the assault.
He said that if it is confirmed that there were Filipinos among the insurgents killed in the assault, the government "will exert efforts to repatriate (their remains)" because "it is the obligation of the Philippine government."
The DFA also said it had no prior information about Filipinos sneaking into Iraq to train with the Iraqi insurgents.
"The procedure is that we have to inquire first before the host government to ascertain the condition and identity of the Filipinos involved," Asuque said. "Our officials will liaise with the proper authorities."
Meanwhile, military officials have warned of a possible rise in terrorist threats in Mindanao.
A Philippine Army intelligence officer told Reuters there is a "very high probability Filipinos were training in Iraqi rebel bases. In the past, local Muslim separatists fought in the Afghan war against the Soviets."
Security officials and analysts say the Abu Sayyaf has ties to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional network of terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network and rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is due to restart peace talks with the government next month.
The army officer said the Philippines has begun talking to other intelligence agencies to get more information about Filipinos taking a more active role in the Iraqi insurgency.
He said the presence of Filipinos in Iraq had serious security implications for Mindanao, which is wracked by a 37-year separatist insurgency that has killed over 120,000 people and stunted development of the resource-rich island.
"Those Filipinos in Iraq could easily become the core of more radical and die-hard militants that could create trouble in Mindanao island and, possibly, the capital," the officer said.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, for his part, told Reuters by phone that "if there are Filipinos in Iraq, they are not our members." He said the MILF had sent hundreds of its members to Afghanistan in the 1980s as part of an international coalition of Muslims fighting to free Afghanistan from Soviet occupation.
"This time, we’re not taking part in the Iraq conflict," Kabalu said, adding that some veterans of the Afghan war now hold key positions in the MILF.
Police intelligence officials said many Filipinos who were in Afghanistan in the late 1980s were also among the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, notably Abdurajak Janjalani, who founded the Abu Sayyaf in 1990.
Links cemented in Afghanistan between Philippine rebels and foreign militants helped facilitate training of JI members in the Philippines since the late 1990s.
This was the first time Filipinos were reported to have been involved in the Iraqi insurgency since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq began in 2003.
Malacañang officials have refused to discuss the security implications of the participation of Filipinos in the Iraqi insurgency.
Abu Sayyaf guerrillas have condemned the US invasion of Iraq in the past but have never stated that they have deployed members to help Iraqi resistance fighters. — Aurea Calica, Pia Lee-Brago
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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