Vicious violation of
democratic rights and scuttling of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations
More and more individuals
and groups are being added to the EU's list of terrorists. Given
no chance to defend themselves, and without right of appeal,
they are victims of the EU's desire to pacify the Bush junta
whilst pursuing a few dirty little aims of its own. Below is
the statement of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant
of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the latest
victim of this summary "justice".
The European Council has unjustly put my name on the list of
so-called terrorists in accordance with the request earlier
made by the Dutch government upon the prompting of the US government.
My democratic rights are viciously violated. I am criminalized
as a “terrorist” without due process. I am defamed
and demonized. My life is being threatened. I suffer moral and
material damages.
It is completely absurd that I am misrepresented as “terrorist”
for being supposedly “linked to” or “in charge
of” the New People’s Army (NPA). In fact, I am simply
an unemployed teacher, prevented by the Dutch government from
working for more than 14 years already and serving as the chief
political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDFP)
in its peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic
of the Philippines (GRP).
It is wrong to make me appear as if I were more powerful than
such organs of leadership as the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP), the national military staff
of the NPA and the National Council of the NDFP, which are all
in the Philippines.
The European Council has also unjustly labelled the New People’s
Army as “terrorist”. In fact, it is a disciplined
revolutionary army led by the CPP. It is the instrument of the
Filipino people in fighting for national liberation and democracy.
It is bound by the Bill of Fundamental Rights in the
Guide for Establishing the People’s Government, the Rules
of the New People’s Army, the NDFP Declaration of Undertaking
to Apply the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I and the Comprehensive
Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian
Law.
The listing of the NPA and my name as “terrorists”
by the European Council has the effect of scuttling the peace
negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. Consequent to the
listing, it is no longer advisable to hold these negotiations
in Europe where organizations and individuals belonging to or
associated with the NDFP in one way or another are vulnerable
to being condemned and treated as “terrorists”.
The NDFP cannot allow the members of its negotiating panel,
its consultants, staffers and supporters in Europe to be put
under duress. It rightfully condemns the scheme of the US and
the Macapagal-Arroyo puppet regime to push the revolutionary
forces towards capitulation by demonizing them as “terrorists”
and threatening them with the brutal power of the US and other
imperialists.
The campaign to demonize the revolutionary forces can only unite
the people to wage a fiercer armed revolution against the armed
counterrevolution. They were not at all cowed by the US-directed
Marcos fascist dictatorship and the existence of the US military
bases at the peak of the Cold War. There is no reason for them
whatsoever to be frightened by US imperialism and a puppet regime
that are in the throes of the worst economic and social crisis
since the end of World War II
The US and the Macapagal-Arroyo regime have pushed the European
governments to scuttle the peace negotiations and to persecute
me. I am now in a situation of using much of my time to wage
legal battles in court and to generate moral and political support
for my just cause.
I also have to guard against foul play by the agents of US imperialism
who are now thrilled by the Bush propensity for aggressive war
and by his lifting of the ban on assassination of leaders opposed
to US imperialism. The listing of my name as “terrorist”
by the European Council is calculated to create the political
climate for facilitating my extradition and even my assassination.
The US and the Macapagal-Arroyo regime are hell-bent on destroying
the people’s revolutionary movement by sheer military force
under the pretext of carrying out a war on terrorism. The people
and the revolutionary forces have no choice but to defend themselves
and defeat their oppressors and exploiters in order to bring
about national liberation and democracy.#
Statewatch has started a campaign to defend Professor Sison.
On 9 August 2002, the US State Department listed the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA)
as "foreign terrorist organizations", encouraging
other governments "to take action to
isolate these terrorist organizations, to choke off their sources
of financial support, and to prevent their movement across international
borders". Since 12 August 2002, the US Treasury Department
has listed Jose Maria Sison as a "terrorist" whose
assets must be frozen. To read more about the campaign to clear
Professor Sison's name or sign a petition in his defence go
to http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/oct/10sison.htm
