Military

DATE= 04/28/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-289178

TITLE=PHILIPPINES / MYERS (L-O)

BYLINE=NANCY-AMELIA COLLINS

DATELINE=BANGKOK

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Top U-S military officer General Richard Myers has visited the Philippines' Basilan Island, where one-thousand American troops are aiding Philippine forces in an anti-terrorism operation. Nancy-Amelia Collins reports from Bangkok.

TEXT: The Chairman of the U-S Joint Chiefs of Staff was accompanied to Basilan by Philippine military southern commander Chief Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu for a security briefing with U-S forces.

Saturday, General Myers warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, al-Qaida, is scouting for new bases of operations, possibly in Southeast Asia. Regional intelligence officials say al-Qaida has extended ties to radical Muslim groups in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

U-S Navy Commander in the Philippines John Fleming says the more than three-thousand American troops in the country are there only to assist the Philippine military.

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We are here to assist and advise our Philippine counterparts against the global war on terrorism. Our mission here is simply to train and advise our Armed Forces of the Philippine counterparts.

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Commander Fleming said General Myers briefed U-S troops in Basilan and had a look around the island.

/// FLEMMING ACT TWO ///

So he was mostly getting what I would call an overview of the operation, and getting a personal look at the terrain, the geography, and the forces here in the field. He also wanted to meet his counterparts with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

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Several Muslim separatist groups are operating in the southern Philippines. The most brutal, the Abu Sayyaf that Washington has linked to al-Qaida, has been holding a U-S missionary couple and a Philippine nurse hostage for nearly a year.

The Abu Sayyaf has earned millions of dollars during the past two-years by kidnapping foreigners and Philippine residents and holding them for ransom. The remaining hostages are believed to be held on Basilan island. (SIGNED)

NEB/NAC/MAR/RAE