Adm. Blair visits U.S. troops in southern Philippines

0 Comments | Asian Political News, April 22, 2002

MANILA, April 15 Kyodo

The commander of the U.S. military forces in the Pacific on Monday arrived on the southern Philippines' Basilan Island, where U.S. troops are holding antiterrorism training exercises with Filipino troops searching for Islamic militants holding a kidnapped U.S. missionary couple.

Adm. Dennis C. Blair, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone Jr., arrived in Zamboanga on a U.S. cargo plane before noon. He met Philippine military chief Lt. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and Southern Command commander Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu.

They later flew aboard U.S. Army Pave Hawk and Philippine Air Force UH-1H helicopters to strife-torn Basilan Island, about 30 kilometers south of the city of Zamboanga, where Blair visited some 160 U.S. Special Forces members training with Filipino troops, who are fighting against Abu Sayyaf rebels, the Philippines' Southern Command spokesman Capt. Noel Detoyato said.

Blair met Filipino and U.S. commanders at the Philippine Army's 103rd Brigade headquarters in Isabela, Basilan, where he was briefed on the security situation and the conduct of the joint exercises.

''Admiral Blair is very happy about the results of the joint counterterrorism training exercise between the Philippines and the United States,'' Detoyato added.

Blair and Ricciardone did not speak to reporters, but Capt. John Singley of the Pacific Command Public Affairs' Office said, ''Admiral Dennis Blair is happy to be here and he is looking forward to visiting forces here.''

Cmdr. Jeff Gordon, the new U.S. military spokesman for the southern Philippines, said, ''Admiral Blair is here on an exit call and to visit our troops in Basilan.''

He said Blair is retiring May 2 and would be replaced by Adm. Thomas Boulton Fargo as the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, the largest of the U.S. military's unified commands.

The Pacific Command operates across more than 100 million square miles and is in charge of 190 ships and submarines, 1,400 aircraft, 191,000 sailors and 30,000 civilians.

Blair is scheduled to hold a press conference in Zamboanga on Tuesday morning, where 18 Abu Sayyaf rebels, who surrendered to the military Sunday, are to be presented to the media.

It is the largest group of Abu Sayyaf rebels to surrender since the group kidnapped three Americans, including Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, and 17 Filipinos, on May 27 last year at the posh Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine province of Palawan.

The third American captive, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded in June, while all the Filipino captives have either been freed or escaped. A Filipina nurse seized later remains with the rebels.

The circumstance of the 18 rebels' surrender was unknown, except that they turned themselves in as one group after a series of military negotiations that began last month.

As Blair visited Basilan, about six people were hurt in separate scuffles between police and anti-U.S. activists protesting against the joint military exercises.

Four youth activists and a reporter were hurt when some 50 youth demonstrators clashed with police as the protesters tried to storm the gates of a former U.S. military base, renamed Clark Special Economic Zone, 83 km south of Manila.

Another protester was hurt when police beat some 20 protesters with truncheons and shields as the demonstrators threw red paint and eggs at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

Blair's arrival also comes on the heels of statements from communist rebels, who said they are prepared to fight and inflict casualties on U.S. troops should the U.S. launch attacks in the country, amid reports U.S. officials were brokering a deal to pay ransom for the release of the Burnham couple.

Philippine officials and U.S. officials have denied the reports.