Arroyo's Measures of Repression Fail to Stop ASEAN Critics; US Delegates Join Protests vs. US War and Trade Agenda in Asia
December 11, 2006, CEBU CITY, PHILIPPINES-- In spite of increased police surveillance by Philippine authorities in advance of the now-postponed 12th Annual ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit, leading to the deportation of Washington D.C.-based human rights lawyer Brian Campbell and the denial of entry of delegates from South Asia, over 300 delegates to the International Conference on U.S. Militarism and War on Terror in the Asia-Pacific firmly resolved to strengthen their regional linkages to resist further U.S. militarization in Cebu City from December 9-10, 2006.
A US delegation of 6 was able to attend the said conferences with the intention of coordinating intensified US-based campaign work around US militarism of the Asia Pacific region, despite a list of targeted US groups banned from entering the country as the Philippine government’s attempt to eliminate the presence of foreign protestors against the ASEAN agenda.
Atty. Campbell had planned to attend the Jobs and Justice Conference, also organized by those who convened the anti-U.S. militarism conference. Campbell has been an out-spoken critic of the Arroyo government’s ruthless killing of activists, particularly labor unionists opposed to her regime. This morning, another unionist was murdered. Jesus Servida, a full-time organizer of workers employed in a Japanese multinational corporation in a Philippine export-processing zone, was found dead at the factory gates.
The ASEAN Summit, scheduled to meet in Cebu City, where officials were to flesh out the U.S.-ASEAN Enhanced Partnership signed in July 2006 which includes a provision to “deepen and broaden cooperation in combating terrorism” was postponed because Philippine officials claimed the summit could not be convened because of weather reports of a coming typhoon, which many have declared as untrue.
Cebu’s Mactan International airport, however, remains open.
Heavy rains did not deter representatives from NGOs and social movements who attended the anti-U.S. militarism conference delegates from throughout the Asia-Pacific. Conference participants believe the ASEAN Summit was postponed because of the growing “political storm” opposing the expansion of the United States’ “war on terror” in the region. Indeed, in March 2006, U.S. Navy Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command or PACOM declared, “Southeast Asia is the front line of the war on terror.” Conference attendees believe U.S. military presence will intensify with greater U.S.-ASEAN security cooperation.
Teresa Gutierrez, Co-Director of the International Action Center and delegate to the anti-U.S. militarism conference declares, “The issue of U.S. militarism throughout Southeast Asia and around the globe is one that the U.S. anti-war movement must take up with all urgency. U.S. bases deprive peasants of their land in South Korea; U.S. soldiers rape Filipinas living near the bases. The so-called war on terror, is in fact, a war of terror which terrorizes the people of this region.”
Berna Ellorin from BAYAN-USA, also a delegate of the conference explains how, “thousands have been killed by the U.S.-backed Macapagal-Arroyo government which uses the rhetoric of the ‘war on terror’ to ruthlessly eliminate her critics.”
Dasaw Floyd from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, also a US delegate, linked the escalating repressive situation of Asian-Pacific peoples to the escalation of repression of people of color and workers in the United States, stating “both societies are experiencing exploitative and abusive conditions under the same US apparatus of total war and the forced impoverishment of peoples abroad and at home.”
Delegates ended the conference, which fell on International Human Rights Day, with the formation of the Asia-Pacific Anti-U.S. Bases Coalition which commits itself to fostering solidarity amongst movements fighting U.S. military presence in the region.
The US delegates resolved to carry the regional Asia-Pacific campaign against US bases to the United States through a series of reportbacks and various forms of information dissemination. The group also resolved to organize a larger and higher-profile US delegation to return to the Philippines by next year.
Contacts: Berna Ellorin, BAYAN USA, ny@bayanusa.org ; Teresa Gutierrez, Nat’l Co-director, International Action Center, teresa@wwpublish.com
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