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2 Aussie posse gunning for Gloria's
foes By Herbert Docena
In December 2003, Prime Minister John
Howard provoked criticism and protests around the
region when he said that his country had the right
to launch "pre-emptive strikes" against targets
anywhere in Southeast Asia.
In July and
August of the following year, Australian special
forces and sailors trooped to the Philippines to
hold joint training exercises with their Filipino
counterparts. [1] Then, in October, 2005, a few
months after it was reported that the Australian police
were
involved in "covert operations" in the country,
the Australian press carried reports -
subsequently denied by the government - that elite
Australian troops had joined their US and Filipino
counterparts in operations against alleged
terrorists in the southern Philippines. [2]
If a Filipino had - for whatever reason -
sued an Australian soldier participating in the
above missions, the accused would have been
treated in the Philippine justice system like any
ordinary foreigner brought to court. With the
Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) signed
by Manila and Canberra last week, however,
Australian troops in the country have become no
ordinary mates: as with the Philippines' only
other such agreement - the Visiting Forces
Agreement (VFA) with the US, the SOVFA will accord
Australian troops a different "status".
This, in essence, is what the agreement
with Australia is all about. Though the agreement
is expected to be presented to the public in a
different light, it is basically a pact that
would, to the extent negotiable, exempt Australian
troops in the Philippines from being subject to
the country's laws.
As Frank Stone of the
US's Military Foreign Affairs office explains in a
presentation posted on the Pentagon website,
"status of forces" agreements (SOFAs) seek to
apply the concept of the "Law of the Flag" or the
idea that a country deploying military forces
abroad should apply its own laws to its soldiers -
and not that of the country where they are to be
deployed. [3] This is the concept that has driven
the US to negotiate a variety of such agreements
with over 90 countries since 1951. [4]
The
specific provisions of the SOVFA have not been
revealed but, just like the VFA, it is expected to
spell out in what cases and under what conditions
Australian troops could be held legally
accountable in the host country, which government
will have jurisdiction over them, and who will pay
for claims arising from lawsuits.
SOFAs
vary because while the party deploying forces will
seek to secure the maximum level of privileges for
its troops in the host country, it is not always
assured of getting everything it wants because
host countries could - and have in fact - balked
at some demands. While the US, for example, has
proposed complete immunity for and jurisdiction
over its troops, other governments have only been
willing or are able to give only limited rights.
Contrary to how it has been portrayed in
some accounts, the SOVFA is not a new security
agreement of the sort that binds parties to new
defense obligations; it merely governs existing
ties. At the same time, however, the agreement is
also not just a mere legal or judicial
arrangement; its signing has political and
geostrategic implications within and beyond the
countries involved.
With mates like
these First, it is important to note that
the two signatories to the agreement belong to the
network of pro-US allies in the Pacific long
described by US policy-makers and analysts as an
"American lake" and which, after Europe during the
Cold War, is now considered the "focus of
strategic competition" by neo-conservatives. [5]
If being on the same side in war is to be
an indication, Australia is perhaps the US's most
reliable ally in the world. No other country - not
even Britain - has fought side-by-side the US in
all its major wars in the past century. In recent
years, it sent sizeable contingents to join the
US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
While many other countries
have since pulled out, the Australian troops
remain part of the dwindling "coalition of the
willing". Home to important US military bases and
installations and the site of large-scale joint
military exercises, Australia has also signed on
to plans for developing the US's controversial
anti-ballistic missile defense system in the
region.
In the network of pro-US allies
around the world, Australia stands out for the
role it is carving for itself in its own backyard.
For his unflinching support for US foreign policy,
Howard has been called the "deputy sheriff" to the
"global sheriff", President George W Bush.
Having urged Parliament to support his
plans for expanding Australia's role in the
region, Howard has presided over what the media
have observed to be the largest expansion of the
Australian military in years, with the new troops
intended to be deployed for overseas missions. [6]
Itself a former colonial ruler of
neighboring Papua New Guinea, Australia has
recently sent troops to East Timor and the Solomon
islands, prompting concerns regarding its regional
interventions. Its role in policing the region is
critical to US military strategy. As the
influential American neo-conservative commentator
Max Boot has pointed out, "We may be the global
sheriff, but we need a posse to be effective, and
Australia has been a stalwart member of that
self-selected assemblage." [7]
With the US
military overstretched, Washington may find more
and more reason to share - if not outsource - some
tasks to its deputy in Southeast Asia. The signing
of the SOVFA signals that Australia is stepping up
to the plate. As US troops get bogged down in the
Middle East and Central Asia and as critical
interests continue to be threatened in the US's
own backyard, Latin America, more and more
Australian combat boots will tread alongside - if
not replace - those of the Americans in the
Asia-Pacific.
Old friend The
Philippines under President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, on the other hand, is still -
despite some very public spats - perhaps the US's
most dependable ally in all of Southeast Asia.
While most other governments in the region have
publicly distanced themselves from Washington,
Manila has bucked the trend and has even
intensified its military cooperation with the
United States since September 11, 2001.
At
no point since the closure of its military bases
in the country in 1991 has the US established a
more visible presence: while Thailand, another
close US ally, recently rejected an offer by the
US to send troops to its violence-wracked southern
provinces, between 300-500 US special forces have
been indefinitely stationed in Mindanao since
early 2002. Apart from them, a steady stream of US
troops take part in up to 24 exercises held all
year round in various places in the country. [8]
Under the Mutual Logistics Servicing
Agreement with the US signed in 2001, the US is
permitted to use military facilities and
installations all over the country. Though
officials deny that bases have been re-established
in the country, the Philippines is listed as
hosting "cooperative security locations" - a
category of bases - by the Overseas Basing
Commission, an official body tasked to review the
US's basing abroad. [9]
Government
officials and analysts suggest that there's
nothing special with the SOVFA since the
Philippines plans to sign similar agreements with
Association of Southeast Asian
Head
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