Amid hostage drama, Manila to pull out peacekeepers on time
Amid hostage drama, Manila to pull out peacekeepers on time
Oliver Teyes
Associated Press
Manila
The Philippines will withdraw its peacekeeping contingent from
Iraq on schedule next month, the government said on Saturday, the
day militants vowed to kill a Filipino hostage if the troops were
not sent home.
As the government made its announcement, the Arab television
station Al-Jazeera showed a video of the hostage appealing to
Manila to give in to the insurgents and withdraw its 51-member
force.
The government decision appeared to be deliberately ambiguous,
representing the fine line Manila is walking to obtain hostage
Angelo dela Cruz's release while remaining one of Washington's
closest supporters of the global war on terrorism.
The Filipino soldiers are participating in civic projects to
help the 160,000-strong foreign force.
Before the kidnapping, the government had discussed extending
the peacekeepers' mandate beyond its Aug. 20 expiration. But
Saturday's statement did not address the issue.
A government official said on condition of anonymity that
sending troops back to Iraq after August is "not a settled issue
at the moment" and any new deployment "will be discussed all over
again."
Saturday's announcement also did not mention any further
action concerning the 4,000 Filipino contract workers in Iraq.
The U.S. military, which has diverted as many soldiers to combat
duty as possible, would be hard pressed to operate in Iraq
without the extra manpower provided by the Filipinos.
Dela Cruz, a 46-year-old father of eight, was snatched near
restive Fallujah in an attack that killed his Iraqi security
guard.
The video on Wednesday showed him surrounded by armed, masked
men. On Saturday, another video of dela Cruz was shown by Al-
Jazeera.
"Please, Arroyo, withdraw your forces from Iraq," dela Cruz
pleaded on the new video.
His voice was inaudible, but an announcer read an Arabic
translation of his words.
"To my colleagues in the Saudi company, and all Filipinos who
are coming to Iraq. I advise you not to come to Iraq, because
there are a lot of problems, and the Iraqi police won't be able
to protect you, like what happened to me," he said, according to
the announcer.
Dela Cruz was alone on the video, wearing a bright orange
jumpsuit like that worn by American hostage Nicholas Berg and
South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il when they were beheaded by
militants. Their killings were videotaped.