Escalation of US political intervention in the country:
Manipulating the peace process

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Together with its military intervention in Mindanao, US imperialism is now directly intervening in the peace negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Arroyo regime. For this purpose, the US has been using the US Institute for Peace (USIP) to send agents to the peace talks, and to actually derail and control the process. This manifests more brazen and deeper direct US intervention in the situation and fighting in Mindanao. The US is tightening its control and influence in Mindanao, especially as it wants to use the island as a forward base in its global "war against terror."

This August, a group comprised of "facilitators" in the peace talks between the MILF and the Arroyo regime arrived quietly in the Philippines. They included Gen. Anthony Zinni, special US envoy to the Middle East.

Zinni was previously sent by US Pres. George W. Bush to Israel to ensnare the struggling Palestinian people into engaging in worthless negotiations with the aggressor and murderous Israeli government. Zinni also served as mediator in the surrender of militant forces in Aceh, Indonesia to the murderous Indonesian military.

With Zinni were former US Ambassador Richard Murphy, USIP Vice President Harriet Hentges and former deputy chief of mission in Manila Eugene Martin. Also part of the USIP team were Nicholas Platt, Stephen Bosworth and James Weisner, all former US ambassadors to the Philippines.

It is the USIP's particular objective to use deception and intervention to derail the MILF and pave the way for the eventual establishment of a US base in the region.

The USIP is an official agency of the US government. It was established by the US government in 1984 and it is the US president that appoints its board of directors. Its pro-imperialist, militarist and ultra-Right orientation is clear. It is currently headed by former Assistant Secretary of State and US ambassador to the Philippines Richard Solomon. Among the USIP's board of directors are the secretaries of the State and Defense Departments and the president of the US National Defense University. The rest come from intelligence agencies and their fronts, various branches of the US military and various imperialist and rightist institutions in the US.

The USIP was established during the Cold War as a US imperialist instrument for spreading "Low Intensity Conflict" (LIC) in areas where there are revolutionary struggles and expand US control and influence where there is no decisive US presence.

The US takes advantage of social turmoil and enters the scene pretending to be a peace broker in areas where it has previously had little or no control or influence. This includes independent countries formerly under the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Islamic countries, several countries in Africa beset with unrest and other countries where European imperialists have greater control and influence.

The USIP sends "experts" who provide "advice" in the conduct of peace negotiations. Among the places where the USIP has trained its efforts are the Balkans, Angola, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo-Zaire, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. It also advises the US government on how to facilitate its intervention and strengthen its control and influence in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and other places where there are large concentrations of Muslims. One of its tactics is the "diplomacy of coercion," which is none other than the use of bully tactics on weak and puppet governments in exchange for aid and credit.

The Bush government used the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 to push further political intervention in independent countries and in countries where there are revolutionary or patriotic movements. In particular, it has set up the "Special Initiatives on the Muslim World" as part of, and attendant to, the "war against terror" to intervene in the political processes of Muslim countries. The USIP also plays the role of propagandist in behalf of US armed intervention and aggression. Among its latest projects are "researches" about the "justness" of US aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq and on the "reconstruction" being conducted by the US in these countries.

21 August 2003
English Edition

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	Escalation of US political intervention in the country: Manipulating the peace process
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