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| Southeast Asia |
| UPI on the situation in Mindanao |
| 2005-04-13 |
| The U.S. embassy in Manila is beating the drums about militant-training activity on Mindanao in the southern Philippines, warning the rebellion-torn southern region could become the "next Afghanistan." U.S. embassy official Joseph Mussomeli is pressuring the Philippines to move more vigorously against Islamic militants infiltrating Mindanao, which he alleged was becoming the new "Mecca" for terrorism. "Personally, I'm worried that we're not worried enough," he said. "I think the real danger here, and the danger that has been here since the mid-90s, is that we're not focused enough on the threat here. "It's not the sort of threat that should be worried about coming here on a day-to-day basis. 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." Mussomeli added the Bush administration was not trying to interfere in Manila's talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, commenting: "We certainly do not believe or at least we don't have clear evidence yet that the MILF as an institution, as an organization, have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah or the Abu Sayyaf Group." However, "it has to be a genuine peace process, and not a farce. There can't be real peace unless the links with JI and ASG are severed. That's the reality." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "beating the drums"? What's that supposed to mean, setting up Iron John circles? Or just might posssibly mayhaps could this be yet another wire service editorial-on-the-sly about Bush the Primitive Warmonger? |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-13 4:31:06 PM |