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| Southeast Asia |
| Winning hearts and minds in Philippines restive south |
| 2007-03-11 |
| EFL Muslim cleric Abhasaan Idlasan sat quietly under the shade of a coconut tree as an MG-520 attack helicopter roared overhead, signaling the arrival of a US military convoy he now associates with development aid. Idlasan, in his long white robe and Muslim headscarf, is the spiritual guide to the several hundred families in this remote and impoverished coastal village on the southern island of Jolo, a key Southeast Asian theatre in the US-led "war on terror". The area has changed little in the past 50 years. Many villagers live in houses on stilts, electricity is limited, fresh water is a daily problem and school remains a luxury only a few can afford. Waves lap on the jagged shoreline, and children swim in the shallows beneath the rickety stilts as their fathers dry-dock their small fishing boats. For years residents lived literally under the barrel of the gun, with marauding Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf militants terrorizing them and taunting government authority that seemed powerless hundreds of kilometers (miles) away in Manila. "We are thankful that the atrocities have stopped. The Americans helped us when they arrived, they helped repair our mosque and renovate the school," Idlasan, 54, told Agence France Presse recently as he joined a group of local officials in greeting visiting US envoy Kristie Kenney and military officials. "The soldiers are very polite, they are specially playful with children," he said. "We feel safe having them around." Idlasan's support is key to the US troops' goal of "winning hearts and minds" here and elsewhere in Jolo, considered by defense experts as an important Southeast Asian front in the US-led global counter terrorism campaign. As the local cleric, Idlasan is highly respected and his openness allows joint US and Philippine forces to move towards finally isolating and crushing the Abu Sayyaf. During a two-week visit, the troops built a four-kilometer (two-and-a-half-mile) road and bridges linking Bato-Bato to other towns. While US troops are prevented from joining combat, Philippine officials said they had provided intelligence that led to the recent killing of Abu Sayyaf leaders Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman. The two had engineered the Abu Sayyaf's worst terrorist attacks as well as the kidnapping and murder of two US citizens in 2001. The self-styled militants have now disintegrated into smaller units in Jolo's jungles with Umar Patek and Dulmatin, two Indonesians who are leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was behind the Bali bomb attacks in 2002. And with the help of the local community, officials said the rebels would be flushed out of their hideouts and neutralized. "They are now disorganized and leaderless," said Major General Eugenio Cedo, commander of the Philippine ArmyÂ’s 6th Infantry Division, stressing that public support for the US-Philippine joint exercises could lead to "isolating the Abu Sayyaf". AFP article showing US military in a positive way? Does the French version say the same thing? |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 way to go Joe and all the others in Zambo and environs! |
| Posted by: Ulatle de Medici8597 2007-03-11 11:11 |