United States Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday praised the Philippine military for upholding human rights in a five-month battle against pro-Islamic State group militants in Marawi.
This was after President Rodrigo Duterte declared the end of the nation’s longest urban war in the city in Mindanao, where troops battled to flush out the militants who attacked in May in what authorities said was a bid to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate.
Mattis, who was in the Philippines to attend a regional security meeting, heaped praise on the military of the Asian country also a day after he met with Duterte in what the Pentagon chief said was a “very warm” meeting.
“We talked about the way ahead and we’re on the same team,” Mattis had said.
Not one human rights violation
“I think the most important thing is here’s an army that had to go in a fight like that, and they had not one human rights allegation against them with any credibility, not one,” Mattis told reporters on the sidelines of the regional security meeting in Clark, Pampanga.
He said this was “really a statement about the Philippine military that they could set a human rights condition in the midst of that awful fight in the way they did.”
Hundreds of local and foreign gunmen who had pledged allegiance to IS rampaged through Marawi on May 23.
An ensuing US-backed military campaign claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people, displaced 400,000 residents and left large parts of the city in ruins.
Duterte imposed martial law across Mindanao immediately after the fighting erupted, saying it was needed to contain IS’ influence spreading throughout the region.
Mattis is on an Asian trip that will also bring him to Thailand and South Korea. Agence France Presse
