KAHAPAN

Talk of US intervention prompts Sulu meetings
            
            
            Philippine Daily Inquirer
            First Posted 04:22:00 12/31/2007

ZAMBOANGA
CITY — A US military spokesperson denied reports that American
soldiers in Panamao town in Sulu province have been preventing health
workers from operating the district hospital there at night.

Dr. Silak Lakkian, Panamao District Hospital chief, earlier said the
American soldiers — led by a M/Sgt. Ronburg — have started
implementing the order on Nov. 30 without offering any reason.

She said a team of soldiers barged into the hospital, which is some
45 kilometers from here, on Nov. 30 and told the chief nurse to close
it not later than 6 p.m.

Threats

Lakkian said the American soldiers had threatened to shoot anybody seen inside the hospital’s premises after that time.

But Lt. Commander Melissa Scheurmann, the public affairs officer of
the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines based in this city,
denied the report.

“All those (pieces of) information are pure allegations and that allegation is not true,” she said.

She said Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan has ordered an investigation of the report.

Scheurmann also said she still has to look into reports quoting a soldier named M/Sgt. Ronburg.

“Personally, I don’t know, I still have to look into that and that name is unfamiliar,” she said.

Summoned

On Saturday, Hadja Jainab Abdulmajid, Sulu disaster coordinator,
said Governor Tan has called on Lakkian and a certain Major Walker for
a meeting.

“Andito sila ngayon, gusto kasi ni governor na magkaroon ng
harap-harapan na usapan at ma-thresh out itong problema (They’re here
now because the governor wants a face-to-face meeting and for this
problem to be threshed out),” Abdulmajid said.

“She is consistent in her position. In fact, she again mentioned the
name of Ronburg and reported it to his superior, Major Walker,
especially the shoot-to-kill order,” Abdulmajid said, adding that it
was unlikely for Lakkian to invent stories.

“Lakkian is one of the respected health officials in the province,” Abdulmajid said.

Embassy words

Rebecca Thompson, spokesperson of the US Embassy in Manila, said
“the US government has had no role in any discussions or decision about
the opening hours of the Panamao District Hospital.”

“US soldiers have not been involved in keeping the hospital closed
or open,” Thompson said in a text message to the Philippine Daily
Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

Lakkian said she was really surprised about the order.

“I thought these Americans are here for humanitarian purposes. Our
hospital caters to all the indigents in the town who cannot afford the
transportation expense to the Sulu Provincial Hospital,” she said.

Lakkian said they found that the American soldiers were serious when
they tried to turn off the generator set in the evening of Dec. 2.

She said she got a call from Ronburg asking her to turn off the generator.

American orders

“My two staffers were instructed by phone to get through the kitchen
door to the genset with their left hands on their heads. After they
were able to put off the genset, they were instructed to get back
immediately,” Lakkian, who was at the hospital at that time, said.

Lakkian said in the morning, she immediately went to Panamao Mayor Abdugafur Abdurajak “because I could not bear it anymore.”

“It is useless to stay here because we cannot do anything,” she said.

As of Friday evening, the hospital remained closed at night as staffers are afraid to defy the order, Lakkian said. Julie S. Alipala with reports from Ed General, Inquirer Mindanao

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