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Filipino Activists Link US Military Expansion in Hawaii and the Philippines
by Grace Alvaro Caligtan, Darlene Rodrigues, and Melisa Casumbal
3 /8/03
As Filipino co-habitants of Oahu, we strongly oppose the US military's proposal to expand its training sites to include Waikane, Kualoa, Hakipuu, and Kaaawa, or any other sites in the Hawaiian archipelago and call for the military to abandon its jungle training plans in those areas. We demand that the military take full responsibility for the environmental damage they have caused due to the prior usage of such lands. We fully support the Kamaka family's struggle to hold the US military accountable for its failure to properly clean up their land, and we call for a return of the land to its rightful ancestral stewards and descendents.
We oppose the use of Hawaiian lands for US military training for the following reasons:
1. The current military expansion in Windward Oahu is, at least in part, aimed at an escalation of US military operations in the Philippines. We oppose continued US military intervention in our ancestral homeland because:
* Joint US-Philippine military operations are unconstitutional, violate Philippine sovereignty, and are strongly opposed by Philippine citizens. The Philippine Constitution expressly prohibits foreign troops from engaging in combat against Philippine citizens on Philippine soil. Top Philippine elected officials oppose Balikatan '03-1 and have raised concerns about its violation of the terms of the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement. On March 1, 2003, more than 40,000 Filipinos representing churches, schools, NGOs, and civil society groups rallied for peace in Manila, while thousands more participated in peace rallies elsewhere in the country.
*
* Joint US-Philippine military operations such as Balikatan '02 and '03 have not achieved their purported goal of ridding the Philippines of Abu Sayyaf. Instead, they have provoked such strong opposition that groups such as the CPP/NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army) and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) have actually experienced resurgence and increase in popular support. Joint US-Philippine military operations have destabilized the fragile and ongoing process of peace talks between these opposition groups and the Philippine government.
*
* Joint US-Philippine military operations have resulted in the deaths and casualties of innocent Philippine civilians in Zamboanga and Basilan. KARAPATAN, a Philippine human rights organization, has documented several cases of farmers and fishermen, even a child, being killed as they are evacuating their homes or because their fishing boat was accidentally bombed. Further, on July 25, 2002, an American soldier shot Moro civilian Buyong-Buyong Isnijal in his own home in Tuburan, Basilan.
*
* Joint US-Philippine military operations have resulted in the escalation of human rights violations in the southern Philippines. These human rights violations, according to KARAPATAN, include illegal searches of Moro homes, and increases in disappearances and "salvagings" (murders) of members of legitimate, peaceful organizations opposing the remilitarization of the southern Philippines.
*
* Joint US-Philippine military operations have resulted in the forced relocation of tens of thousands of civilians, primarily Muslims and indigenous peoples, to ill-equipped evacuation centers in the southern Philippines.
* The conflict between legitimate Muslim opposition groups (excluding the Abu Sayaff, which is a tiny band of fringe elements with little to no popular support) and the Philippine government has a complex, decades-long history that cannot be resolved by US military intervention. The only lasting and peaceful resolution to this historic and civil, not international, conflict will come from peace talks, not US military presence.
Philippines/HI2 - Expanding Military Pollution of the Land
