CANBERRA, Australia, May 18 (UPI) -- The Philippines' ambassador to Australia has told critics of Manila's anti-terrorism campaign to "give us a break."
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday that Cristina Ortega said analysts who asserted there were terrorist training camps in the Philippines' southern Muslim regions needed to update their assessments.
Ortega that there was only a single camp, used by the Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, and that there were just "temporary" areas where foreign militants train radicals.
Ortega commented on recent reports about recent Filipino anti-terrorist efforts, "Saying we are the weakest link -- come on, give us a break -- we have soldiers who are dying because of this."
A recent Australian foreign aid white paper highlighted the southern Philippines as a key site for Australian aid. It said that if instability and poor governance were not confronted, an even more conducive environment for terrorist networks could arise.
Ortega said the Philippines did not believe the military was the sole valid solution to fighting terrorists. She said a peaceful settlement was "vital."
"I don't think anyone in the world, any big country in the world, could solve this just like that -- boom, drop a bomb and that's it, finito," Ortega said.
