Sinds kort is het leger van de VS samen met het Filipijnse leger op jacht naar strijders van IS (verenigd in 'Maute) en Abu Sayyaf. De president van de Filipijnen, Duterte, zegt tegen de inzet te zijn van VS troepen in zijn land, dit is in overeenkomst met zijn verkiezingsbeloften. Nu kan je nooit weten wat deze psychopathische moordenaar echt wil, behalve dan alle drugsverslaafden en dealers vermoorden (waar de schadelijkste harddrug is uitgezonderd van vervolging: alcohol.....).......
Duterte heeft al wel aangegeven, dat hij minder grip heeft op het leger, dan zich liever voegt naar de wil van de VS. De band tussen de VS en het Filipijnse leger is historisch en dateert nog uit de tijd, dat de Filipijnen een kolonie was van de VS van 1899 tot 1946......
De vrees is dan ook, dat de VS de strijd tegen islamitische terreurgroepen gebruikt, om weer echt vaste voet op Filipijnse bodem te krijgen, waar de kans bestaat, dat de VS een coup zal organiseren tegen Duterte....... (al kan deze psychopaat beter vandaag dan morgen worden afgezet, echter niet middels de hulp van de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde: de VS, dat zich al als een beest heeft gedragen op de Filipijnen!)
Uiteraard richt de VS zich ook op de linkse verzetsgroepen en dringt het aan op een verbod van de communistische partij in de Filipijnen.......
Eén ding is zeker: de mensenrechtenschendingen zijn na de inzet van VS troepen flink gegroeid, mensenrechten waar het Filipijnse leger en politie al schijt aan hadden......... De interventies en andere bemoeienissen van de VS in de Filipijnen uit het verleden, waarbij massamoorden werden gepleegd, mensen werden gemarteld en andere ernstige mensenrechtenschendingen werden gepleegd, doen het ergste vrezen voor de Filipijnse bevolking op o.a. Mindanao.......
Naast dit alles moet niet vergeten worden, dat de Filipijnen als kolonie van de VS wordt gebruikt voor de afzet van overproductie. De Filipijnen fungeren als een semi-kolonie van de VS, niet alleen voor afzet, maar ook vanwege de lage arbeidskosten en voor de bescherming van de miljarden investeringen die de VS heeft gedaan in de land- en tuinbouw, plus de productie van wapens en munitie..... Zelfs overheids/publieke zaken als gezondheidszorg, onderwijs, energielevering en telecommunicatie zitten bomvol VS investeringen, dit meestal daar deze zaken in handen zijn, dan wel voor een groot deel in handen zijn van VS bedrijven of VS investeerders.......
Vergeet verder niet dat alleen Mindanao naar schatting al van 840 miljard tot 1 biljoen dollar (in Engels: 840 billion en 1 trillion dollar) aan mineralen in de bodem heeft, dat is zo'n 70% van de totale Filipijnse mineralenrijkdom........
Lees het volgende uitstekende artikel van Joe Catron over deze zaak:
US
Military’s Anti-Terror Efforts in the Philippines Fueling Human
Rights Violations
U.S.
forces have teamed up with the Philippines’ military to combat
terrorist groups in the country, ostensibly to bring about peace. But
numerous human rights violations have sprung up in their wake and
some believe that the U.S.’ ultimate goal may be to oust President
Rodrigo Duterte.
(MPN) — As
United States special forces near their third week in Marawi, a city
on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, observers say
their participation
in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ battle to
reclaim the city from the ISIS (Daesh)-linked Maute group was also
aimed at reinforcing more than a century of U.S. control over the
Philippines, which was its colony from 1899 until 1946.
“The
U.S. seeks to consolidate and maintain the Philippines as its
semi-colony, wherein it can avail itself of cheap raw materials
(minerals, oil, natural gas), a cheap labor force, a dumping ground
for its surplus US products, as well as protect its billions in
investments in corporate agribusiness, military production and even
healthcare, education, and public utilities such as
telecommunications and energy,” said Bernadette Ellorin, a
grassroots human rights activist and chairperson of BAYAN-USA,
an alliance of U.S.-based progressive Filipino organizations.
The
island is also the site of enduring conflicts between the Government
of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the indigenous Lumad and
Moro peoples, as well as the leftist New People’s Army.
Peace
talks between the GRP and the Moro National Liberation Front, the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the leftist National Democratic
Front of the Philippines have stretched on for decades. But they
quickly disappeared from headlines when Maute
seized Marawi on May 23,
after an attempt by the GRP to arrest the leader of another Daesh
affiliate, the Abu Sayyaf group.
But
many fear that the goal of the U.S.’ current intervention is to
strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in their bid to
repress these popular movements, as well as Maute and Abu Sayyaf.
“The
U.S. objective in Marawi and in Mindanao is to go after and crush the
revolutionary armed movement in the region including the Bangsamoro
struggle for self-determination, rebrand the [Communist Party of the
Philippines]-NPA as terrorists to the international community, and
derail the peace process that was resumed under the Duterte
administration,” Ellorin said.
Philippine
military “…the most reactionary and pro-U.S. government
institution…”
Speaking
at a press conference in the city of Cagayan de Oro on June 12 –
one day after U.S. participation in the battle began – Duterte said
he had “never approached America” for assistance and “not aware
of that until they arrived,” adding “our soldiers are
pro-American, that I cannot deny.”
The
AFP’s founding by the U.S., as well as the decades of training and
other assistance it has received from America, make it uniquely
pro-American in a country where Duterte’s anti-U.S. broadsides have
won broad public approval.
The
AFP is the most reactionary and pro-U.S. government institution in
the Philippines,” Ellorin said.
“It
was established in the early 20th century during the U.S. colonial
period by the U.S. colonial government as the Philippine
Constabulary, whose purpose was and remains to maintain U.S. control
over the country and suppress anti-colonial rebellion.”
Many
are worried about the fresh support that the AFP is receiving from
the U.S., as well as its apparent ability to create its own foreign
policy independent of the GRP.
Human
rights violations abound amid U.S. intervention
Before
the Marawi crisis erupted, years of U.S. involvement had already
taken a grisly toll in Mindanao and across the Philippines, according
to the country’s human rights advocates.
“U.S.
intervention through military and political means on the affairs of
Mindanao and the Philippines has resulted in countless violations of
human and people’s rights such as massacres, torture and other
grave crimes especially against the Moro peoples, to blatant
disregard of the country’s sovereignty and patrimony, and to the
worsening of social injustices and discrimination against Moro and
Lumad peoples,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of
the KARAPATAN
Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights.
In
Marawi, she added, “Human rights violations have been committed
with graver impunity especially with the continuing implementation of
the U.S.-driven counterinsurgency program, all-out war declaration
against the people, the anti-poor war on drugs and martial law
declaration in Mindanao.”
These
abuses fit an established historic pattern of the U.S. and its allies
using anti-terror rhetoric to justify their repression of popular
struggles, regardless of the human toll, according to Reverend
Michael Yoshii, a global council member of the International Council
on Human Rights in the Philippines
“In
the case of the Philippines, this has led to hundreds of
extrajudicial killings targeting human rights advocates seeking
social change in the country,” he said.
“The
war on terror continues to be a nebulous reality that needs to be
reigned in as innocent civilians like those in Marawi have become
collateral damage in these campaigns.”
U.S.
neocolonialism unlikely to end anytime soon in the Philippines
Shahshahani
added that U.S. involvement in the Philippines occurs across multiple
levels, with various strategies but identical goals.
“U.S.
intervention takes place in the economic, political, social, and
cultural spheres in the Philippines and perpetuates the country’s
deep-seated social and economic crisis that is the root of chronic
social unrest in the country,” she said.
“The
Filipino people have suffered the brunt of this military presence,
including sexual violence against women and children, forced
evacuation of communities in areas designated for military exercises
and operations, injuries and killings of civilians, and destruction
of the environment.”
With
U.S. forces showing no signs of leaving Marawi anytime soon, their
presence raises several questions about the future. One is the effect
that an enhanced U.S. role could have on peace talks between the GRP
and leftist or Moro groups.
Another
is the consequence of a possible power grab by the military of a
democratic country in cooperation with a foreign superpower.
Veiligheid en Justitie en Defensie moeten structurele partners van
elkaar worden op het terrein van crisisbeheersing in Nederland. Niet
alleen de professionals varen er wel bij, maar ook de belastingbetaler
heeft er baat bij. Die krijgt tenslotte méér waar – lees: een veiliger
omgeving – voor hetzelfde geld. Het themakatern bevat onder andere
bijdragen van CDS Tom Middendorp, prof. Rob de Wijk, prof. Monica den
Boer, Peter Bos (Veiligheidsregio Utrecht) en Paul van de Beek (OM).
