Amid Iraq hostage fears, Manila vows to pull peacekeepers
Amid Iraq hostage fears, Manila vows to pull peacekeepers
Oliver Teves, Associated Press, Manila
The Philippines' small peacekeeping contingent in Iraq will be withdrawn when its current stint ends on Aug. 20, the president's spokesman said on Saturday, after prominent Filipino Muslims appealed for insurgents there to free a kidnapped truck driver.
The withdrawal announcement appeared to be deliberately ambiguous, representing the fine line that the Philippines is walking to obtain the hostage's release while remaining one of Washington's closest supporters of the global war on terrorism.
It left open the prospect that Philippine troops could return under UN auspices.
The militants snatched Angelo dela Cruz on Wednesday near the city of Fallujah and threatened to behead him if Manila did not agree to withdraw its 51-strong force by Saturday. It was unclear whether they would see Saturday's announcement as addressing that demand.
"Our humanitarian contingent is scheduled to return on Aug. 20," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. "Our future actions shall be guided by the UN Security Council decision as embodied in Resolution 1546, which defines the role of the UN and its member states in the future of Iraq."
The decision was announced just moments before Arab television station Al-Jazeera showed a video of Angelo dela Cruz appealing to his president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to give in to his captors' demand.
"Please, Arroyo, withdraw your forces from Iraq," dela Cruz said. His voice was inaudible, but an announcer read an Arabic translation of his words.
The withdrawal affects only 51 peacekeepers and made no mention of any further action on the 4,000 or so Filipino contract workers there who are much more crucial to Washington and would be difficult to replace.
Arroyo has frozen any further worker deployments.
A separate video showing the appeal by Muslim leaders, including Mahid Mutilan, vice governor of the Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines and an Islamic religious leader, also showed dela Cruz's father, wife and several children. It was aired by Al-Jazeera shortly before the network aired dela Cruz's appeal.
Popular movie actor Robin Padilla, who belongs to the Return to Islam Movement, offered to take the place of dela Cruz, saying, "Muslims and Christians should live under the light of peace."