Phillipines
The Phony War
24’05
| | Suggested Link: PHILIPPINES MILITARY | |
| Hypergain - Night deployment of US SF troops | Music | 00:00 |
| | Williams: It’s near midnight as the cream of America’s fighting machine move out in the next phase of their war on terror. | 00:10 |
| | Soldier: Wee bit hot embarking Williams: Lugging the latest in night-fighting gear and human sensors - the elite US Special Forces prefer to move – and hunt their enemy in darkness. | 00:19 |
| Soldier | Soldier: well we always like to work at night if we can I mean there’s a lot less observation we don’t try to advertise everything that we do. | 00:35 |
| Chinook Helicopters | Williams: As in all warfare though, the best laid plans can go horribly wrong. Just a few hours after these pictures were taken - this Chinook helicopter was returning to base when it plunged into the sea killing the entire crew of ten. | 00:46 |
| | It was a tragic start to America’s latest intervention in Asia but the campaign goes on. | 01:04 |
| Ball SUPER: Col. William Ball Deputy Commanding Officer | Ball: Our mission really is to advise train and assist the Philippines and in doing that we hope to increase their capabilities in their war against terror | 01:11 |
| Chinook Helicopters | | |
| Gunmen of the ABU SAYYAF | Williams: In their jungle camps, the target of the American deployment are these men - the hundred or so gunmen of the Abu Sayyaf - Moslem militants who’ve turned to kidnapping to fund the fight for an Islamic state - and some say just to fill their pockets. | 01:37 |
| Burnhams | Martin: As soon as it gets dark, I’m chained and I’m kept chained until the daylight hours. Williams: For ten months the group has held American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham along with a Filipino nurse. | 01:56 |
| | Gracia: I wish I had treats. I wish I had something to give them.
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| | Williams: The gunmen want two million US dollars for their release - but talks have stalled and time is running out. | 02:19 |
| | Martin in now gravely ill – and has to be carried as the group flees the army’s advance. Martin; I didn’t get breakfast. I think the boys were able to get some rice but there was none left for us this morning. | 02:28 |
| Abu Nidal | Williams: Speaking exclusively to us this Abu Sayyaf member using the alias Abu Nidal delivered this warning if the money’s not paid. Nidal: They will be killed. Beheaded? Nidal: Beheaded. | 02:40 |
| American Troops | Williams: There’s now a sense of urgency for these Green Berets who’ll next week join their Filipino counterparts on combat patrols targeting the Abu Sayyaf… | 02:57 |
| | Their real aim is to deliver George Bush a double victory - the rescue of two Americans and a decisive blow against Moslem militants. | 03:07 |
| Ball | Ball: If there’s any message it’s the message that the United States is determined to assist our friends to defeat terrorism throughout the world where ever it may be. | 03:18 |
| Chinook Helicopters | Williams: Yet unlike Afghanistan this protracted guerrilla war has no battle lines. | 03:32 |
| Adan SUPER: General Adan Philippines Army | Adan: You’re operating in an area with thousands of civilians innocent as well as supporters of the terrorists living together in the community - that’s not Afghanistan . | 03:39 |
| Basilan port poverty/people | Williams: And finding the enemy isn’t even the main problem Tonight Foreign Correspondent presents startling claims of collusion between the Philippines army and the rebels - and evidence of systematic human rights abuses that could deal the Americans not a battlefield defeat - but a public relations disaster. | 03:57 |
| Priest | Priest: I am doing this for the truth. Can no longer swallow what’s happening in Basilan. | 04:24 |
| The island of Basilan | Williams: The island of Basilan is beautiful but highly dangerous, especially for visiting outsiders. | 04:31 |
| | Muslim militancy here is nothing new – it’s been around in one form or another for the past four hundred years. | 04:39 |
| | Muslims blame the Christian elite for their poverty and want to establish a Moslem state. And for their part the Abu Sayyaf is funding much of their insurgency through kidnapping. | 04:48 |
| | There’s a price on the head of any outsider but in the past year, a hundred locals have also been seized and without payment many have been killed. | 05:00 |
| Williams on boat with Governor. | Basilan’s Governor Wahab Akbar has the job of trying to enforce order in this lawless place. | 05:11 |
| Governor Akbar | Governor: We look at the Americans coming very much like a blessing... | 05:20 |
| US soldiers & Basilan people | Williams: But Governor Akbar is living proof of the conflicting loyalties here…of the problem the Americans will have in deciding who is friend or foe. While he’s the chief local representative of the Philippines Government, he’s also been a Muslim guerrilla who many say helped create the Abu Sayyaf. It’s a charge he denies | 05:26 |
| Governor Akbar | Governor: No, not at all. In fact, since the very beginning I’ve always opposed their ideas. | 05:46 |
| US soldiers & Basilan people | Williams: and to prove his bona fides points to his own campaign against the Abu Sayyaf…what he calls the balance of terror…killing them if he finds them – and kidnapping their families. | 05:55 |
| Governor Akbar | Governor: I said do not be afraid these people are looking for money if they behead one we will behead one. | 06:08 |
| | Williams: The Governor’s rough justice is also rapidly filling Basilan’s city jail. | 06:16 |
| Jail | Sixty alleged Abu Sayyaf sympathisers are held here with no access to lawyers, no trial dates and no apparent evidence. Those in jail are the lucky ones…the unlucky are dead. | 06:23 |
| Lawyer | Lawyer: All cases are mine. Williams: All of them. Lawyer: Yes all of them. Alleged violations. Williams: What sort of violations? Lawyer: From killing down to illegal arrest, disappearances. | 06:38 |
| Scout ranger patrol | Williams: And it’s America’s new ally in the war on terror – the Philippines army – that stands accused of the most disturbing violations… | 06:54 |
| | When these troops patrol – as on this exercise – they are in enemy territory… | 07:09 |
| | They don’t know the terrain, they can’t match the on-foot speed of the guerrillas and are outfoxed even by local farmers who send messages telling the Abu Sayyaf of their movements. | 07:15 |
| Scout ranger | Scout ranger: They move from place to place, they’re highly mobile, so it’s really hard for us to strike on them. | 07:29 |
| Troops in Hummer | Williams: Garrisoned for their two-year tours – they never leave base except like this – in number and heavily armed…potential targets from the community they’re meant to be protecting. | 07:37 |
| ADAN OVER MAP | Adan: See that? About 60 kilometres wide. Williams: The Philippines army’s chief spokesman General Edilberto Adan spent twelve years fighting Moslem insurgents in Mindanao | 07:51 |
| Adan | Adan: It’s not enough that you only capture the armed guerrilla you must cut his lifeline which is eighty percent of the movement and who are this – this is the relatives who are keeping the ransom money who have bought apartments transportation businesses, tricycles, jeepney companies in Mindanao rice mills they are the relatives of the Abu Sayyaf. | 08:05 |
| Troops on base | Williams: Last year the army got what it had long wanted . (upsot) – Presidential approval to arrest suspected Abu Sayyaf supporters without warrants. | 08:35 |
| Osmin Abducarim | Osmin: I saw several men in my premises they tied the hands of my husband at the back and brought him out … | 08:51 |
| | Williams: Sixty-two year old Osmin Abducarim and scores of other Moslems were dragged from their homes by masked troops. | 09:01 |
| Basilan’s military base at Tabiawang | They were brought here to Basilan’s military base at Tabiawang … the same camp now used by the Americans as their forward base on Basilan. | 09:08 |
| | It took Abducarim’s current wife three days to see him … and when she did she was shocked by what had happened. | 09:18 |
| Osmin Abducarim | Osmin: There was pepper put inside a coconut shell, smashed with pepper… with salt… and they just placed it on his body. How bitter it was… Williams: Rubbed on? Osmin: Yes, rubbed on his body because they wanted him to admit that they were terrorist people. But he didn’t admit it, because he is not. Williams: Abu Sayyaf? Osmin: He is a civilian… he is a law-abiding citizen – not a terrorist. | 09:27 |
| | Osmin: This was the boy who was shot by the marines. 2 high school boys were… | 09:56 |
| | Williams: In scores of testimonies gathered by human rights worker most say their confessions were extracted under torture by the army. | 10:02 |
| Marie Enriquez | Enriquez: We were able to document 7 incidents of killings. Some were executional Williams: By who? Enriquez: By the military. | 10:14 |
| Osmin Abducarim | Osmin: What kind of Government do we have? | 10:24 |
| | Williams: Seventy-three people including Mrs Abdukaram’s husband now face death by lethal injection for crimes most say they didn’t commit – kidnapping and membership of the Abu Sayyaf. | 10:27 |
| Governor Wahab Akbar | Even Basilan’s version of Dirty Harry - Governor Wahab Akbar admits the campaign went too far. | 10:40 |
| | Governor: We were sorry that the implementers were not very kind in implementing the instructions of the president – Williams: What do you mean? Governor: Well some of the people arrested were the wrong ones… | |
| Attorney Jose Mamuang | Mamuang: …penis scrotum and testicles were cut off … Williams: A gruesome chronicle of abuses detailed by the Government’s own human rights commissioner in the region, Attorney Jose Mamuang. : | 11:00 |
| | Mamuang: Some of the executions are being done by some of the legitimate forces Williams: The military? Mamuang: Some evidence – like we have affidavits of the relatives and some witnesses say it was committed by government troops. | 11:11 |
| Scout Ranger Patrol | Williams: The army crackdown is in fact backfiring. It’s creating more guerrillas. | 11:27 |
| Said Ali and Ismael Kawa | Said Ali and Ismael Kawa have just spent six months fighting with the Abu Sayyaf. They say they only joined to escape the army’s indiscriminate arrests. | 11:34 |
| | Said Ali: We joined the Abu Sayyaf because if you’re a Moslem the military doesn’t discriminate they can behead you even if you are not Abu Sayyaf so we were afraid – and that’s why we joined. | 11:46 |
| GRAPHIC – US STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT | Williams: And it’s not as if the Americans don’t know what’s been happening. The latest human rights report from the US State Department clearly states: Members of the security services were responsible for extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention. | 12:02 |
| Williams & Ball | But it seems nobody’s told the US Special Forces now working with the same Filipino troops accused of the crimes. | 12:20 |
| Ball | Ball: If there’s any truth to it it would be a concern to us but we have not heard of any allegations and we have had no reports from our troops on the ground of human rights abuses… | 12:29 |
| Gunfire | Williams: If it’s really ignorance or merely turning a blind eye, the Americans seem destined for more nasty surprises…like the answer to the biggest question of all…why six thousand Filipino troops have not been able to kill off eight or so Abu Sayyaf gunmen | 12:45 |
| | All the evidence is that they work together and have a vested interest in keeping this conflict going. | 13:04 |
| | It all came out into the open last year during the bizarre end to this siege in the town of Lamitan. | 13:14 |
| Lamitan hospital | On June first as the Abu Sayyaf gunmen and their leaders were holed up in this hospital with about twenty hostages including the Americans they were surrounded and it looked like the end - then they just walked out this door - to some it was just a military mistake - to others evidence of army collusion with the Abu Sayyaf. | 13:23 |
| Father Nereo Nacorda in church | The army’s most vocal critic is this man – Catholic priest Father Nereo Nacorda. When Father Nacorda was kidnapped by the group six years ago he saw first hand how Filipino Marines sold guns and bullets to the Abu Sayyaf. | 13:45 |
| | But he only went public after witnesses said they saw the army sharing ransom money with senior army officers so they could walk away from the Lamitan siege. The amounts he details are in pesos. | 14:02 |
| Father Nereo Nacorda | Nacorda: Ten million for the military, ten million for the governor and five million for the Abu Sayyaf and the Abu Sayyaf were complaining because they were doing the dirty things and received only a small share of the ransom | 14:17 |
| | Williams: You’re saying basically that everyone from the governor down is making money out of this hostage taking? Nacorda: Yes, yes, yes, this is the serious problem… Williams: So what’s you’re warning to the Americans forces who are here thinking they’re going after Islamic terrorists? Nacorda: I would like to advise the American soldiers to be extra careful and they have to and they have to study the situation first because they have good intentions, training our soldiers running up Abu Sayyaf. But they just running up there this ordinary Abu Sayyaf. They should know these people behind Abu Sayyaf. These people are responsible for this group. These are the very people that they should focus on the governor and some military officials who are in cahoots with the governor and the Abu Sayyaf | 14:34 |
| Governor Wahab Akbar | Governor: no that’s very false – when people get frustrated they accept rumours which are not true. | 15:21 |
| Said Ali and Ismael Kawa | Williams: Are the army given money for kidnapping by the Abu Sayyaf? Do they share the money? | |
| | Ismael Kawa: Before Abu Sayyaf gets the money the military gets it. Said Ali: The military takes it? Q: You mean the soldiers are involved in the ransom? Said Ali: If they get it they keep it. The military in Basilan don’t negotiate for the hostages. | 15:33 |
| Montage of Basilan | Music | |
| Martin and Gracia Burnham | Williams: It’s in this murky, dangerous world of dirty dealing and big bucks that the American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham have been held for the past ten months. | 16:42 |
| | Martin: We have our faith in God. | |
| | Williams: The Philippines military says rescue is delayed because they’re under orders to retrieve the Americans alive…but it seems there’s a much bigger problem. | 16:58 |
| Said Ali and Ismael Kawa | Ismael Kawa: After the negotiations, they don’t carry out their side of the agreement. Said Ali: The Governor doesn’t want the ransom to be paid.
| 17:10 |
| US SPECIAL FORCES DEPLOY | Williams: Again the Governor strongly denies this claim. So for now, the main hope for the Burnhams and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap rests with the high-tech search and destroy equipment these US Special Forces have brought with them to root out the Abu Sayyaf.
| 17:25 |
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| Ball | Ball: Well nobody would be happier I think if the Burnhams and Deborah Yap were released today that I would and most of the men on the taskforce but again that is the mission of the Philippines government so we are here to assist them in any way we can. | 17:43 |
| MILF meeting | Williams: It’s tempting to see this whole struggle now as relatively straightforward…the might of the US military bearing down on 100 militants of the Abu Sayyaf. | 18:07 |
| | In fact the potential for conflict is much bigger…the prospect of being dragged into a much bigger war with a much bigger force…the 12-thousand strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front…the MILF.
| 18:21 |
| | Unlike the Abu Sayaff, their fight for Moslem rights is widely respected and has a great deal of support – but they too have links with Al-Qaeda and on Basilan, they’re accused of harbouring the Abu Sayyaf.
| 18:36 |
| GENERAL ADAN | Adan: There are links between the MILF and some foreign terrorist groups from the middle east. We know also that in Basilan the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf co-exist in fact that is one of the tactical challenges than when we pursue the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan they cross over to the MILF areas.
| 18:56 |
| MILF troops | That means the threat of escalation – what the Americans call mission creep…of ending up in fire fights not just with the Abu Sayyaf – but also the Moro Front. Given their links with Al-Qaeda, some might say why not but this would be a much bigger fight. | 19:26 |
| Shariff Julabbi & Williams | This man may not look so impressive at first glance but he’s the Moro Front’s southern commander Shariff Julabbi. And his men are waiting for the Americans. | 19:47 |
| Shariff Julabbi | Julabbi: If they have no choice they have to retaliate in other words they have to protect themselves - by not being harmed by the aggressors I’m referring to the Armed Forces of Philippines or the U.S. troops. | 19:57 |
| Choppers over Basilan | Williams: That would mean the Americans confronting not just the Abu Sayaff, but the thousands of highly skilled and motivated Muslim guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. | 20:13 |
| | Flying over this jungle landscape, it’s hard not to reflect on what happened the last time the Americans were dragged into a guerrilla war here in South East Asia. | |
| | PHILIPPINES MILITARY | 20:46 |
| | Suggested intro Focus interview: Bjorn Lomborg Imagine you're a "greenie". A member of Greenpeace. | |
| Bjorn Lomborg & Jennifer Byrne Interview | | 21:35 |
| | | |
| | Jennifer: Bjorn thank you for joining us. Now before we look at the public response to your book, tell us how you a one time card carrying Greenpeace member, came to write it at all, how did the conversion come about? | 21:30 |
| | Bjorn: See Jennifer what I really tried to do. I read an interview with this American economist that says Things are actually getting better and I thought hell right wing American propaganda. And so I actually set it as a task for me and my students to disprove them and we read ‘em in the fall of ’97 and we thought we were just going to debunk him and have fun. | 21:46 |
| | As it turned out he was right on most points at least and that was why we first wrote some articles on Denmark. And I thought that was going to be it. But it just sparked such a big debate and made so many people think and act very angrily sometimes that I thought it would be worthwhile to see overall how things are going and that was why I wrote first the Danish book and now the book that’s come out in English. | 22:09 |
| | Jennifer: Well, having debunked the litanies as you call them of doom and gloom you’ve come in for a fair debunking yourself. Both from serious assaults on your credibility and I believe you’ve had a pie in your face at Oxford. Were you surprised at the level of reaction? | 22:29 |
| | Bjorn: To the same extent no because I feel … I’m the same kind of guy. I’m an old Greenpeace guy and my first reaction was exactly the same thing as I see most other people reacting to what I say. But the point is though I’m not saying trust me I saying trust all the sources. Trust the UN, the World bank, the OECD the EU all those datas that we all trust and we all use in the debate. So the worry that I have is not so much the people initially very react very strongly and angrily. That’s fine. I would have done the same. But they don’t come around and say it’s odd that he has so many data … that he has so much data, maybe I should try and look at whether my belief, my initial understanding actually holds up. | 22:46 |
| | Jennifer: But the data is one thing, It’s the interpretation of the data that’s another thing isn’t it and you basically, take a global approach to extinction of species… to forests to climate change. All of which you say are getting better. The news is good but on a local level that’s not necessarily the same story is it? | 23:33 |
| | Bjorn: Of course not. The fact that we are catching more fish per person in the world that we’ve ever done before doesn’t mean that there are not particular places where we’ve managed fisheries badly. Of course the world is full of problems. But on the other hand it’s important to get the sense are we generally moving in the right direction or the wrong direction? And I try to point out we are moving in the right direction but there are still many problems to be looked at. Nigeria, for instance is getting more and more calories. Burundi is getting less. That is a problem in Burundi but we have to understand that Burundi is 17 times smaller than Nigeria. The general direction is good but it does mean there are still places we need to focus. | 23:51 |
| | Jennifer: But that’s a great statistical trick and after all you are a Professor of statistics. What does it mean in environmental terms? | 24:33 |
| | Bjorn: It means that we are not in the sense of not being able to support our future, our future population growth we will be able to feed the Third World ever better. But it does mean what we should focus is much more civil strife, lack of democracy, lack of development because those are the things, the people who are still starving today are not starving because we can’t feed them but because they don’t have the money enough to buy food. So it focuses on different issues, not that we are losing soil or that it’s eroding. It’s a problem somewhere but not by any means the most important problem. The problem is democracy, making sure you have good governments and so on. | 24:40 |
| | Jennifer: Scientists are traditionally assessed by peer review. Now when the magazine Scientific American asked a group of scientists to review you data, your book basically, you failed didn’t you? They gave you a flunk. They said that it was an incomplete use of data, misunderstanding of the underlying science. What’s your plea? | 25:26 |
| | Bjorn: There’s an old lawyer saying that if you have a good case pound the case if you have a bad case pound the table. What you really have to look at is they’re pounding the table enormously so much that you really have to ask yourself do they really have a good case. In 11 pages of Scientific American which The Economist summarised as strong on contempt, but very weak on substance, they really only pointed out 2 very very small errors. Of course, I’ve corrected that immediately on my website. I don’t want to make errors. But those were errors that anyone could just have written on an email. It is really not the issue here of saying the basic things are wrong. They just don’t point that out there. | 25:50 |
| | Jennifer: Why do you think the resistance has been so strong from what you might call the establishment environmentalists? | 26:32 |
| | Bjorn: One of the people who argued in Scientific American actually gave it away, he said in Discovery some 12 years ago that yes, as scientists we want to tell the truth, but we are also human beings who want to do good in the world and so we have to offer up scary scenarios to get people moving. And I understand that concept. But that ‘s the concept of a guy working in an interest organisation it’s not how science should be conducted. These people basically try to tell us this is what we should be doing. | 26:38 |
| | Jennifer: You’re arguing that they use doomsday scenarios to scare the hell out of people so that what, good will happen or there organizations will be funded, what’s your actual allegation? | 27:12 |
| | Bjorn: I’m pointing out that this guy has actually openly stated that he also wants us to make an effort and so is willing to offer up scary scenarios. But of course the point I’m trying to make is no we need to give the right information on each and every one of the areas and one of the points I tries to make with global warming is to say if we do something about global warming it will have a marginal effect at an incredibly high cost. And if we just spent a fraction of that cost doing something else good in the world. We could, for instance, give clean drinking water and sanitation to every single human being on earth for the cost of what we are talking about now - Kyoto – for just one year. So we have to ask ourselves what are our priorities here? | 27:20 |
| | Jennifer: Bjorn Lomborg it’s a long book short interview sorry but thank you very much for joining us tonight. | 28:05 |
| | Bjorn: Thank you very much. | 28:10 |
| | Credits: | 28:16 |