Military

DATE=07/09/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PHILIPPINES/U-S (L-ONLY) (CQ)

NUMBER=2-291852

BYLINE=HEDA BAYRON

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: The next military exercise between U-S troops and Philippine soldiers will include another restive province in the southern Philippines. As V-O-A's Heda Bayron reports, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo says U-S trainers will be deployed to the predominantly Muslim province of Sulu.

TEXT: President Gloria Arroyo told reporters Monday that part of the next phase of counter-terrorism exercises by U-S and Philippine troops will include the southern Philippines.

The new exercises will be in Sulu province, where the community is predominantly Muslim. At least two Muslim armed groups are known to operate in Sulu, including the extremist Abu Sayyaf, which Washington has linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Currently, U-S and Philippine soldiers are training together in Basilan province, also in the south.

Parouk Hussin, governor of the Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines, says the new exercise will benefit the province.

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The area is still infested with criminal elements - there are kidnap-for-ransom groups, the Abu Sayyaf is still very much active in the area. The idea of the exercise is of course to improve the capability of our law enforcement agencies to deal with the situation.

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But some Muslim leaders warn that the deployment could trigger memories of American campaigns in Sulu early in the last century, when many Muslims died resisting U-S colonial rule.

Mr. Parouk says he expects some opposition from the community.

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There might be some opposition but I'm not worried really. This is for the interest of everyone. Anyway, this is not engaging in actual combat.

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Sulu has been a battleground for government troops fighting separatist rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (M-N-L-F). The group signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, but continues to operate camps in the area. Mr. Parouk says the M-N-L-F has, so far, expressed no opposition to the exercise.

President Arroyo says the bulk of future exercises will be staged on the northern island of Luzon, where Philippine soldiers having been battling communist insurgents for more than three decades.

Ms. Arroyo says the new exercise, which starts in October, will focus on upgrading the capability of the Philippine Air Force pilots.

Some one-thousand American soldiers are training with their Philippine counterparts in counter-terrorism methods on Basilan island. The current deployment ends on July 31st. (Signed)

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