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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (108309)	7/27/2003 12:06:32 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Getting closer... SADDAM HUSSEIN HAD BEEN IN HOUSE RAIDED IN TIKRIT - CNN (11:39am 07/27/03) U.S. troops come close to catching top Saddam bodyguard boston.com TIKRIT, Iraq - (AP) U.S. soldiers said they missed catching Saddam Hussein's security chief and possibly the former Iraqi president himself by a mere 24 hours early Sunday, while a U.S. Marine was killed in a grenade attack south of Baghdad. Troops stormed three farms in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, in simultaneous pre-dawn raids after receiving a tip that Saddam's new security chief was staying at one of the farm houses, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who led the operation by the of the 4th Infantry. ''We missed him by 24 hours,'' Russell said, adding that residents told soldiers that the man they sought had been at one of the farm houses.....

To: LindyBill who wrote (108309)	7/27/2003 12:24:57 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 281500

Muslims Fear Military Take Over In Philippines Philippines military wait for the go-ahead to attack the rebel soldiers By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent Kuala Lumpur, July 27 (IslamOnline.net) - Muslims in the Philippines fears a military coup against the present administration in Manila will bring more miseries and will halt all chances of a peaceful solution in Mindanao, Bangsamoro sources told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, July 27. While its foreign allies, led by the United States and Australia threw support behind President Gloria Arroyo in the face of a failed coup which she announced publicly on Saturday, July 26, Muslims in the country are growing in uncertainty. Several MILF members, including Eid Kabalu, the official spokesperson and Salamat Hashim, the leader of the 12,000 strong rebel formations fighting for a Muslim state in the South of the majority Christian country, told IOL that they did not trust the army and its generals. The Military is known for its opposition to the peace treaty with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), fully backing former president’s Joseph Estrada’s all out war against the rebels in the year 2000. The military altogether forced the Arroyo administration to attack the Muslim rebels in their own recognized and declared territories in Mindanao, thus violating a truce signed last year. The MILF itself believes the Arroyo administration is under intense pressure from the military to start an all out war against the MILF believing such a strategy would push the Muslims to accept the terms and offers of Manila on how to end the 25 years old conflict. It is known in the Muslim populated areas of the Philippines that the military is against any peace deal with the Muslims. The military has also vowed to avenge the death of those of its officers who died fighting the Muslim rebels, a Bangsamoro source told IOL. A huge majority of Muslims supports the MILF and wishes to be living in a totally independent state where Islam would rule their everyday lives, Maulana Alonto, the editor of the Crescent newspaper told IOL. The reason is that the Muslims do not have any trust in the Philippines military, arguing that the armed forces of the country would continue violate the peace if it were ever to be enforced. Another Muslim leader, Amira Lidasan who leads the Moro (Muslim)-Christian People’s Association, an association grouping Muslims and Christians on an interfaith basis, told IOL recently that Muslims in the south and in Manila or in any other areas of the Philippines were worried of the tactics employed by the military against them. The Bangsamoro people has every reason to believe that the failed coup in Makati was motivated by the fact the Muslims and the Arroyo administration are closing in on a durable peace treaty that would end a deadly conflict. After several days of denials, President Arroyo admitted last night that a "small band of rogue junior officers" has conspired to overthrow her government. Arroyo said she ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to hunt down and arrest 50 junior officers and men who deserted their posts, bringing with them unspecified weapons. A deadline set by Arroyo for rebel troops to surrender lapsed late Sunday after Arroyo had given the military mutineers an extra two hours to lay down their arms, with reports saying that Manila intended to extend the deadline indefinitely. If Arroyo successfully faces down the rebel military officers who were demanding her resignation, peace in Mindanao may have a concrete chance to be concretized, the Bangsamoro official said. Arroyo was elected vice president in 1998 and took over from jailed ex-president Joseph Estrada after he was toppled by a popular uprising in January 2001. Estrada is now detained while on trial for alleged corruption. Supporters of Estrada who mounted a failed attempt to overthrow Arroyo in May 2001 are under suspicion of having links to the current unrest. In 2001, Arroyo showed that she wanted to solve the military conflict in Mindanao by peaceful means, thus winning the hearts of the Muslim communities in the south. The breakdown of the truce signed in Malaysia in 2002 forced Muslim leaders and the Muslim population as a whole to have severe mistrust in the Arroyo administration. The MILF, however, knows that the Arroyo administration is surviving thanks to the tacit support of top military officers, who took her side at the crucial moment of deciding who would lead the Philippines after Estrada was deposed. Arroyo was severely embarrassed earlier this month when a convicted Indonesian bomb expert, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, escaped from police detention in Manila as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was visiting the Philippines. On the other hand, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said in Washington that "no one should be under any doubt that we fully support the legitimate civilian government" of Arroyo, who has ordered the military to put down the rebellion. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who was in Singapore for a bilateral visit when Filipino rebel soldiers seized an apartment tower in Manila where Australian ambassador Ruth Pearce was temporarily staying, denounced what he called a coup attempt by "dissident rebel army officers." The ambassador and other foreigners emerged unharmed early Sunday from the Oakwood Tower apartments, part of a commercial center occupied and rigged with bombs by rebel soldiers in anticipation of a government counter-attack. Singapore, one of the Philippines' closest partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), also backed the Arroyo government saying the tiny nation was concerned about developments in Manila. Malaysian Ambassador to Manila Taufik Mohamed Noor said he was "shocked" by the developments. "This is not good for the Philippines," he said, according to the abs-cbnnews agency.