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US forces want Mindanao as new Afghanistan

US forces want Mindanao as new Afghanistan

The United States is now on the thick of preparations to convert Mindanao into another laboratory for war against terrorism similar to Afghanistan according to the statement issued by the militant group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya).

“ Malacañang and top officials of the military will surely deny this issue to high heavens. But at the end of the day, the Macapagal-Arroyo government will ultimately allow the US imperialist forces to convert Mindanao into to an American Mecca for war of aggression similar to Afghanistan”, said Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap.

The militant leader said the staging of RP-US Balikatan exercises in Basilan, which will officially starts today in Maluso and Lamitan towns is part of the preparations. At least 28 US military experts will return to Basilan to train 150 Filipino soldiers as part of the joint military exercises under Balance Piston OS-6.

The US government has allotted $ 140,000 or P 7.56 million for the joint military exercise that will end on May 5, according to US Army Major Robert Ball, mission commander of Balance Piston OS-6.

“ The US forces’ presence in Basilan indicates that the imperial army of Washington is now knocking at the doorstep of Mindanao to pave way for the Afghanistan like invasion of the South”, Hicap stressed.

US Embassy’s Charge d’ Affaires in Manila Joseph Mussomeli said the US government has strong evidence and reliable information that the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah has joined forces with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf group in Mindanao.

“ The US now pictures Mindanao as an island in grave disarray and disorder due to terrorist presence to clinch political-military premium that would justify the entry of their aggression forces in the South”, Hicap said.

Mussomeli in an interview with SBS-Australia said the threat in Mindanao is more long term and that certain portions of the island are lawless and that the situation is fast becoming like an Afghanistan situation.

For his part, Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said the statement of Mussomeli was a propaganda build up for the transfer of not less than 15,000 US troops from the American military based in Okinawa, Japan to Mindanao in preparation for the US war of aggression in the island similar to what they did in Afghanistan after 9/11 bombings in the United States.

“ It is part of the grand design. Once the US troops are transferred here, Washington will begin the invasion of Mindanao, a grand political-military project of the US government that had been kept by the Macapagal-Arroyo government since she assumed the presidency in 2001”, Corpuz added.

Pamalakaya said Malacañang should immediately cancel the scheduled Balikatan exercises this year following the statement of US Embassy in Manila and should pursue a thoroughgoing review and investigation on the American forces presence and undisclosed plans in Mindanao.

“There’s no way out but to drive the US forces out of the Philippine soil. Mrs. Arroyo should invoke and exercise the country’s national sovereignty to frustrate Washington from making Mindanao another Mecca for US-led terrorism”, the group added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 05:18 | link | comments |

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