Prospects for Peace and Human Rights Amid AllOut War

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Prospects for Peace and Human Rights Amid
All-Out War

• Human Rights and Peace Summit
• St. Cecilias Hall, St. Scholastica College
  Manila
• 21 July 2006

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The fight against the Left is the glue that
binds GMA June 16, 2006
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Clear-Hold-Consolidate-Develop

• CLEAR conduct combat operations to clear the
  area either by annihilating the insurgents
  physically (search and destroy operations) or
  by chasing them out of the area of operation
  (search and clear operations)

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Clear-Hold-Consolidate-Develop

• Hold - maintain a force in the cleared area to
  prevent the insurgents from returning usually
  an army detachment, reinforced by civilian
  paramilitary (eg CAFGUs) and the police conduct
  population and food control measures such as
  census, curfew, rationing, hamletting

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Clear-Hold-Consolidate-Develop

• consolidate build or rebuild the civilian
  counter-insurgency apparatus (civilian
  counter-insurgency organizations, local
  intelligence units, local council, warning and
  reporting system, etc.)

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Clear-Hold-Consolidate-Develop

• Develop - government agencies come in to provide
  services, socio-economic projects,
  rehabilitation, etc.

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COUNTER-INSURGENCY CAMPAIGNS (all employed the
Clear-Hold-Consolidate-Develop strategy,
differing mainly in the tactics of clearing and
holding )

• 1970s Police nip-in-the-bud operations and
  various AFP area Task Forces
• 1982-86 Oplan Katatagan
• 1986-87 Oplan Mamamayan
• 1988-94 Oplan Lambat-Bitag I, II, III, IV
• 1998-2000- Oplan Makabayan
• 2001-2006- Oplan Bantay-Laya

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Political killings and other human rights
violations resulting from Oplan Bantay-Laya
implementation

• Knowing the Enemy lumps together a broad range
  of progressive, church and media organizations
  and personalities, labels them as communist
  fronts and makes them fair game for both covert
  and overt neutralization.
• Target Research nationwide project aims to
  build up intelligence information on
  organizations and personalities and list them in
  an Order of Battle in preparation for their
  neutralization

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From Rand Corporation study The United States
and Asia Chap 4- Implications for the military
and USAF Challenges and Change
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You have a Maoist insurgency thats trying to
overthrow the government, and this really is the
kind of thing that we are fighting against
throughout the world.
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CONCLUSIONS

• 1.      The GMA governments all-out support for
  the US war on terror and its own aggravated
  version or application of counter-terrorism in
  the Philippines is the single most decisive
  factor and biggest obstacle to the advance of the
  GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

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CONCLUSIONS

• 2. US-backed Arroyo regime, having neither
  legitimacy nor conscience, seeks desperately and
  obsessively to remain in power by harnessing the
  dark forces of fascism and reaction. In the
  process, this regime does not mind, in fact it
  evidently approves of, killing off the genuine
  peace advocates.

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CONCLUSIONS

• GMA regime has been emboldened to escalate
  military offensives against the CPP-NPA-NDF and
  continue to encourage political killings and
  other human rights violations against civilians
  tagged as members, supporters and fronts of the
  CPP-NPA.

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CONCLUSIONS

• 4.      Only the peoples unity in resisting,
  opposing and prevailing over the illegitimate,
  unjust and oppressive regime can restore hopes
  for a just and lasting peace.
•  

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