UN denies ordering Phl soldiers to surrender arms

UNITED NATIONS – The UN peacekeeping chief strongly denied on Wednesday allegations from the Philippines’ armed forces chief that Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were ordered to surrender their weapons to Islamist militants who had trapped them.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang said his soldiers defended themselves against Islamist rebels last weekend in defiance of an order from their UN force commander to surrender their weapons, a move that would be highly controversial in the six-nation, blue-helmeted force.

The UN’s undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, denied that any such order was given.

The back-and-forth underlines a rise in tensions in the UN peacekeeping force following weekend skirmishes with Islamist militants in Israeli-controlled territory on Syria’s southeastern border.

Islamist fighters battling the Syrian army overran last week a crossing point in the line that has separated Israelis from Syrians in the Golan Heights since a 1973 war, the most recent escalation of Syria’s civil war, now in its fourth year.

The fighters then turned against UN blue helmets from a peacekeeping force that has patrolled the ceasefire line since 1974.

After 45 Fijians were captured last Thursday, 72 Filipinos were besieged at two other locations for two days by militants before they escaped.

The militants, believed to be part of an al-Qaeda-linked group known as Nusra Front, are still holding the 45 Fijian members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in Golan Heights.

Catapang said that at one point while the Filipinos were trapped, UNDOF Force Commander General Iqbal Singh Singha of India ordered the soldiers to surrender their arms to prevent harm from befalling the captured Fijians.

Asked what order was given to the Filipinos, Ladsous replied, “Never to hand over weapons.”

The order was simply “not to shoot,” he said.

One UN official told Reuters that no force commander would order his troops to hand over weapons to rebels. If that were to happen, the official said, the commander would “be out of a job” since countries that supply weapons and material to the force would be reluctant to re-supply the mission.

Several Security Council diplomats said the issue of what orders might have been given was discussed on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation body.

In that meeting, Ladsous expressed full support for Singha, diplomats who were present told Reuters. Ladsous later told reporters that Singha had “exercised good sound judgment all along” during the crisis.

Ladsous said the United Nations had not confirmed that the militants who attacked the Filipinos and are holding the Fijians belong to Nusra Front.

UNDOF troops were kidnapped twice last year and in both cases were released unharmed.

October pullout

Before pulling out in October, the Philippine government vowed yesterday to resolve the incident involving Filipino peacekeepers and UNDOF chief Singha.

In a press briefing, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said President Aquino was waiting for the full report on the matter.

Coloma said the government was standing by the courage and greatness of the Filipino troops but would not argue with the UN without looking into the whole situation.

He said it was important to study everything, especially since the Filipino peacekeepers would be ending their tour of duty soon. The government decided against the immediate pullout of troops to honor its commitment with the UN.

“We want to complete our tour of duty and wind down our UN commitment in the proper way,” Coloma said.

According to Coloma, the Department of Foreign Affairs is coordinating with the Department of National Defense and the AFP as well as the UN on this matter.

“After all, the deployment of Filipino peacekeepers is a UN matter and that is a matter of international diplomacy, for which the DFA is responsible. We will fulfill our commitment to the UN,” Coloma said.

He clarified that even before the encounter with Syrian rebels, the President had decided to just let the Filipino troops finish their current tour of duty.

“This was not an effect of what happened last week,” Coloma said when asked if it was true that the Philippines had put on hold the deployment of a new batch of peacekeepers because of the incident.

AFP officials called for an investigation of the claims of both Singha and the Filipino commander in Golan.

“If that is the case, then the more that an investigation must be conducted to find out the truth,” AFP-Public Affairs Office chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala told The STAR.

“He (Singha) was unstable and he kept on changing his orders,” said Catapang when he faced media men on Tuesday, referring to Singha’s handling of the crisis.

Taking orders and guidance from the defense and military leadership in the Philippines’ home-base, the trapped Filipino peacekeepers at Position 68 defied Singha’s verbal order to surrender, which the Indian general also refused to put into writing as earlier demanded by Catapang through UNDOF’s Filipino chief of staff, Col. James Ezra Enriquez.

This disagreement resulted in Enriquez, overall commander of the Filipino contingent in Golan Heights, turning in his resignation last Sunday as UNDOF’s number four man.

Enriquez is now on administrative leave while awaiting his repatriation and that of the entire 331 Filipino peacekeepers next month.

“I have been in the military service for 30 years and never defied tactical, operational or administrative orders from my superiors, until that standoff in Position 68. I made the right decision,” Enriquez said in his Facebook post.

The military insists that the Filipino peacekeepers in Golan Heights were ordered to surrender to Syrian rebels.

“Based on our report, that was what happened. We won’t make such decision if it wasn’t ordered,” Catapang told reporters here when asked whether they stand by their claim that Filipino troops were instructed to surrender.

Catapang said they won’t be issuing rebuttals to the UN official’s statement.

“We will just submit the report and it is up to higher headquarters to decide. We don’t want this to be a blame game,” Catapang said.

“Our problem is over and I think it’s now up to the Department of Foreign Affairs to answer all the queries,” he added.

Catapang said he was not surprised by Singha’s denial.

“I was not surprised, that’s why I was asking him (Singha) to put it in black and white,” he said, referring to the UNDOF chief’s alleged order.

Catapang clarified that they are only questioning Singha’s decision and not the UN’s system.

Singha’s decision not to fight the rebels came shortly after another batch of Filipino peacekeepers trapped at UN’s position 69 were able to extricate themselves towards the waiting Irish troops who escorted them to safety.

With position 68 still surrounded by rebels, Singha reportedly ordered the Filipino peacekeepers to surrender their weapons as demanded by the rebels during earlier negotiations spearheaded by Singha himself.

However, Singha’s surrender order of firearms was relayed by the Filipino troops back home and was disapproved by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Catapang, as the soldiers would be violating the AFP’s rules of engagement.

Manning the fort, the trapped Filipino peacekeepers were later attacked by the rebels, resulting in a seven-hour gun battle.

Singha, during the lull in fighting, again instructed the Filipino peacekeepers to surrender their weapons and leave their post, raising a white flag. This was again defied by the Filipinos.

The trapped troops, executing an escape plan, abandoned their besieged position before midnight Saturday and walked through a minefield for 90 minutes until they reached the Israeli border.

For his part, Singha, in an apparent move to save his neck, described Filipino peacekeepers’ “great escape” from their UN post at Position 68 as an act of cowardice.

With his side of the story published by India Today, Singha said the unprofessional actions of the Filipino peacekeepers have endangered the lives of the captured Fijian soldiers.

“They have defied orders at a time when we had negotiated a ceasefire with the rebels to ensure that all troops in the conflict area could exit,” Singha said.

Singha, whom India Today said has had vast experience commanding troops in Kashmir and other conflict zones, declared that all his actions have the support of the UN during the crisis. – Aurea Calica, Jaime Laude, Alexis Romero