Aussie foreign minister backs RP campaign vs Abu Sayyaf

Australia has urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to uphold human rights in tracking down the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the AFP has to take into consideration the political consequences of its offensive in Mindanao.

“It is understandable that the AFP try to track them down as long as they do not breach international norms of human rights,” he said. “That is an issue that we discussed with President Arroyo when she visited Australia before.”

“They should confront it (terrorism) and they have been doing a good job and we have been impressed with their efforts.”

Downer said Australia supports the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“The peace negotiations are with the MILF,” he said. “We support those negotiations. We are repeatedly reassured that those negotiations don’t have far to go and that’s fair enough.”

Downer said there was a rise in terrorist activities in Southeast Asia between 2001 and 2002, citing particularly the Bali bombings in 2002.

“What happened in the couple of years, the Indonesians, the Filipinos as well as the Malaysians and Singaporeans have been very successful in tracking down terrorists and in some cases they have killed them,” he said. – Pia Lee-Brago