US embassy cancels local Vets Day rites due to threats

The US Embassy in Manila has canceled a Veterans Day ceremony at the American cemetery due to the threat posed to its citizens by possible terror attacks.

"The US Embassy has canceled the Veterans Day ceremony scheduled for the American cemetery in Manila on November 11, 2002," the embassy said in a warden notice seen in Washington DC.

"Although the American cemetery will remain open with normal public hours on that date, it remains prudent to assume that terrorists could target Americans and others in such places," it said.

US Embassy press attaché Karen Kelley said the ceremonies were supposed to take place in selected cemeteries and since the State Department has advised Americans to avoid crowded areas, they decided to heed it.

Kelley disclosed the celebrations were usually attended by US veterans and their families and the members of the international and Philippine communities, and so it would be risky for them to converge in public places.

She said the number of people who attend the observances vary each year. But since they are able to distribute their notices widely, many veterans including the Filipinos and expatriates participate in the ceremonies.

The new warning came after the State Department on Saturday upgraded its travel warning for Americans in the Philippines, stressing the "potential for terrorist bombings... in view of the number of recent security-related incidents, the possibility for future terrorism, kidnapping and other violence."

It was the State Department’s second advisory in four days over the Philippine All Saints’ Day holidays.

Fears that American and other Westerners could be targeted by terrorists in the region have been acute since the bombing at Indonesia’s Bali resort in October which killed more than 190 people, many of them Australian.

But Southeast Asian nations have criticized Western states for unfairly labeling the region — which derives valuable income through tourism — as excessively dangerous. — AFP, Aurea Calica