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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines expels two more Iraqis |
| 2003-03-24 |
| Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she has approved the expulsion of an Iraqi diplomat and another Iraqi Embassy staffer following a U.S. request for countries to expel Baghdad's diplomats. "I have approved the expulsion of one Iraqi diplomat and one, I think, non-diplomatic personnel of the embassy," Arroyo told reporters on Monday. "The US Air Force can drop them back into Baghdad for all we care!" "We are only expelling those with some evidence of espionage," she said, adding that the Iraqi Embassy in Manila will not be closed and Iraqi diplomats will be dealt with case by case. "This one gets asylum, this one gets a trial, this one gets booted ..." Last month, Philippine officials expelled an Iraqi consul, Husham Husain, over suspicion of links with Filipino Muslim extremists. The Philippines, one of Washington's staunchest Asian allies in the global war on terrorism, has increasingly been sensitive to possible security threats, especially after it joined last week the "coalition of the willing" backing Washington's military action against Iraq. Arroyo defended the move as more lenient compared with other countries. She noted that Jordan, "which is a neighbor of Iraq and is supposed to be a friend of Iraq, already expelled its five diplomats, so we are in fact bending backward in a show of friendship to the people of Iraq." You'd show more friendship to the people of Iraq by locking these rats up. Her spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said in a radio interview that while the Philippines could not disregard allegations of espionage against Iraqi diplomats, "We will not just expel diplomats without evidence. We have to be fair." The Iraqi Embassy in Manila has seven accredited diplomats. It wasn't immediately clear who was being expelled. The ambassador-designate, Ghazi Faissal Hussein, still hasn't presented his credentials. Elsewhere in the region, Thailand has expelled three low-ranking Iraqi diplomats, while majority Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia have said they will not comply with the U.S. request. We'll remember. Last week, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo announced 11 Iraqis have been arrested in an anti-terrorist sweep and deportation proceedings were underway. Domingo said the Iraqis have been monitored for terrorist activities for some time and claimed they were part of an "established network" linked to Hussain, the expelled Iraqi consul. Rolling up the network. |
| Posted by:Steve White |