Canada, Japan threaten to pull aid workers from Mindanao

MANILA (AFP) - Japan and Canada have threatened to pull out of vital aid projects in the southern Philippines if Manila carries out punitive operations against Muslim separatists there, officials said Friday.

President Gloria Arroyo's government has deployed more troops on Basilan island to hunt down Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members blamed for the killing of 14 marines there earlier this month.

Ten of the slain soldiers were beheaded on July 10 as they searched for a kidnapped Italian Roman Catholic priest, since freed unharmed on the neighbouring southern island of Mindanao.

"We would be disappointed if security concerns arising from a spillover of military operations in Basilan to other areas in Mindanao constrained us to temporarily curtail our aid operations," Canadian ambassador Peter Sutherland said in a letter to Manila's peace negotiating panel.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been observing a three-year truce while negotiating a peace agreement with Manila.

This has allowed wealthy nations including Japan and Canada and multilateral agencies like the World Bank to implement development projects in the south, where some of the poorest Filipino families live.

Arroyo's government confirmed receiving letters from the World Bank and the ambassadors of Japan and Canada over the escalating tensions in Basilan.

"As one of the countries that have full involvement in the Mindanao peace process, we are gravely concerned that offensive military operations could derail the ongoing peace talks and lead to a bigger armed conflict," Japanese ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki wrote.

"In case the situation worsens, Japan will have to consider temporarily pulling out its aid-related Japanese personnel from Mindanao for security reasons until there is certainty that such offensive military operations in Basilan will not spill over to other areas," the envoy warned.

World Bank Mindanao coordinator Mary Judd called for restraint, warning that "an escalation would threaten the chances of achieving a peaceful resolution to this crisis, or much worse, totally derail the ongoing peace process."

She wrote that due to the peace process, "several donor-supported programs and projects are now under implementation in Mindanao for roads and bridges, agricultural development and education, among others."

The MILF said its forces attacked the Marines because they had strayed into its territory, but has denied its forces beheaded the soldiers.

The rebels rejected a military demand to turn over those behind the attack.