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| Southeast Asia |
| PACOM Cancels mil exercise over Marine rape case |
| 2006-12-22 |
| The United States has cancelled large-scale military exercises in the Philippines scheduled for next year in an escalating dispute over custody of a U.S. Marine convicted of raping a local woman. U.S. embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop says the military exercises scheduled for February are cancelled, because of the dispute over the custody of a convicted U.S. marine. Called the Balikatan 2007 war games, these usually involve as many as 5,000 U.S. troops, and are a sign of the close ties between the two long-standing allies. |
| Posted by:49 Pan |
| #1 Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez blamed Pozon and the Court of Appeals for straining RP-US relations due to the custody dispute over Smith. "We cannot blame the US for its actions because we donÂ’t seem to know how to respect our treaty with them. That is unfortunate because the government has always been willing to comply with its treaty obligations. Unfortunately we cannot avoid the process of the courts," Gonzalez said. He blamed Pozon for not respecting the provisions of the VFA. |
| Posted by: Joe of the Jungle 2006-12-22 21:24 |