[van-announce] Deprivation of right to life for Prof. Sison

Wed Sep 18 10:08:01 PDT 2002

Dear Friends,
As many of you are aware now, Professor Jose Maria Sison, a leading theorist
and revolutionary in advancing the national democratic aspirations of the
Filipino people over the past 30 years, is currently under attack by the
U.S., Philippine, and Dutch governments.

On August 9, 2002, the U.S. announced the addition of the Communist Party of
the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP/NPA) on its Foreign
‘Terrorist’ List.  Soon after this announcement, the Dutch government has
dealt with Professor Sison, who is living in the Netherlands in political
exile, in a most discriminatory and unjust manner.

His bank account has been frozen, and his rightful benefits as a legitimate
political refugee have been terminated-virtually starving him and his family
of their basic neccessities.  The Dutch government has also moved to add
Professor Sison, the CPP and NPA on the European Union foreign ‘terrorist’
list.

Please find attached below, two letters from Professor Sison to the Utrecht
Municipal government in the Netherlands and the Dutch Prime Minister,
regarding his unjust treatment.  Excerpts from the letter were read at a
recent rally the Filipino community and supporters organized at the Dutch
Consulate in Vancouver earlier this week.

Organizations and members of the Filipino community in Canada continue to
campaign for the just treatment of Professor Sison.

In solidarity,

B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Filipino Nurses Support
Group, SIKLAB, Philippine Women Centre, Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa
Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Vancouver
 -------------------------------------

Deprivation of the Basic Necessities of Life, Violation of the Basic Human
Right to Life

16 September 2002

Mr. Drs. C. E. van der Linden
Hoofd, Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid
Postbus 8029, 3503 SB Utrecht
Bezoekaddress: Oudenoord 275 Utrecht
Telefax: 030-2865661

Dear Mr. van der Linden,

Thank you for your 10 September 2002 letter informing me that, starting from
15 August 2002 in accordance with the sanctieregeling terrorisme (sanction
regulation against terrorism) 2002 III, you have terminated benefits
previously due to me as hereunder stated:

 1.      payment of an allowance for food and other basic necessities,

2.      accommodation or housing, and

3.      health insurance and third party liability insurance.

By your action, you have gone farther than the freeze on the joint Postbank
account with my wife, Julieta Sison de Lima, previously ordered by the Dutch
finance minister to the Postbank. You have proceeded to deprive me directly
of the basic necessities of life and carried further the cruel attack on my
basic right to life in concert with the Dutch authorities that have
previously promulgated the sanctieregeling.

 Now, I cannot expect any more amount from your direction going into the
aforesaid joint bank account with my wife. You have also terminated the
user's agreement that I had signed for the apartment in which my wife, son
and I are living. We are now threatened with being driven to the streets,
despite your assurance of temporary use of the apartment pending the next
whim of those who play the role of inscrutable gods.

 Your act of terminating all benefits and the bank freeze have effectively
put my family in arrears of payments to the grocer, the dentist, the
insurance company and others who have provided us with goods and services
since July. We now face not only the danger of suffering hunger, lack of
water and electricity and ill health without medical insurance but also the
ignominy of being accused of fraud for failure to pay for goods and services
that have been delivered to us.

 As you have put it, there is still no solution for the accommodation of
members of my family as a consequence of your terminating the aforesaid
user's agreement.

Indeed, the assault is not only on my basic right to life but also that of
other members of my family. Their living conditions are now put in jeopardy
by your action.

 It is clear to me that you have the duty to look after the basic human
right to life and right to basic necessities of life among your clients. But
what you have done to seek approval for the restoration of the
aforementioned benefits is somewhat unclear to me. At any rate, I thank you
for whatever positive action that you have taken in this regard, provided I
am not misrepresented in any way as terrorist .

 I appreciate your calling my attention to the possibility under Article 3
of the sanctieregeling terrorisme 2002 III to request the Minister of
Finance for a lifting of the prohibitions for humanitarian reasons.
Regarding this point, I shall consult with my lawyer whether such a request
would mean submission to the false charge of terrorism and other unjust and
oppressive presumptions of the sanctieregeling against me.

 Certainly, I can never agree with the undemocratic act of my being
criminalized as a terrorist without the benefit of due process, being
demonised as such by name in official public announcements and being
subjected to punitive measures that deprive me of the basic necessities of
life and that violate my basic human right to life.

 For your information, nowhere in the world, not even in the Philippines, is
there any formal charge of common crime or political crime against me. The
Manila government declared in 1998 that there is no pending criminal charge
against me. Since then, no criminal charge has ever been brought against me.
I find it outrageous that I am being treated worse than a convicted common
criminal.

To demand the restoration of the basic necessities of life that have been
taken away from me, I do not wish to become a beggar to the very same
persecutors who seek to coerce me, under pain of starvation and loss of
health insurance, into accepting the unjust and slanderous presumptions of
their sanctieregeling.

I would rather assert my basic human right to life and all the rights and
considerations, which previously allowed me to receive the benefits that are
now taken away. I received these benefits previously as an asylum seeker,
subsequently as a recognized political refugee and definitively as one under
the protection of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

 Said benefits are a mere pittance for bare subsistence. I would have easily
earned several times more as a university professor or in some other
capacity commensurate to my qualifications. Consider the loss of income for
me during the last fourteen years, not to mention the lack of pension at
this point in my life. I have endured the sacrifice in order to defend my
rights.

 I have been prevented from taking employment because of the longrunning
collusion among the US, Dutch and Manila governments to prevent me from
being admitted as a refugee and from getting the permit to reside in The
Netherlands. I have repeatedly applied for the permit to work but I have
always been refused. One prospective employer went so far as to spend a big
amount of money to make a legal case for my right to work but was also
frustrated.

 To some extent, I am happy that there is a public airing of the fact that I
have a small joint bank account with my wife and that the measly amount of
money in this account comes from a social welfare agency for our bare
subsistence. It is clear that we have been living in poverty, contrary to
the malicious claims of our detractors in the Philippines that we live in
luxury in The Netherlands.

Respectfully,
Signed: Prof. Jose Maria Sison

16 September 2002

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende
Binnenhof 20
Postbus 20001
2500 EA Den Haag

tel. +31 70 3564100
fax. +31 70 3564683

Minister of Foreign Affairs J.G. de Hoop Scheffer
Bezuidenhoutseweg 67,
PO Box 20061
2500 EB The Hague
telefax 070 3484848

Minister of Finance  J.F. Hoogervorst
Korte Voorhout 7
PO Box 20201
2500 EE Den Haag
Tel. 070-3427540/ Fax 070-3427900
Gentlemen:

In the strongest terms, I hereby protest that your sanctieregeling
terrorisme  (sanction regulation against terrorism) 2002 III, issued on 13
August 2002, criminalizes me as a “terrorist” without the benefit of due
process, demonizes and incites public hatred against me and subjects me to
such punitive measures as deprivation of the basic necessities of life and
violation of my basic human right to life.

Your government has undertaken the following punitive acts against me since
15 August 2002:

1.            The freezing of my Postbank joint current account with my wife
Julieta Sison de Lima, which bank account receives cash remittances from
such agencies of your government as the Dienst Welzijn (Welfare Service) of
the Sociale Zaken en Werkgelenheid (Social Affairs and Employment) and the
Bestuur COA Cluster 401 and pays our bills for such basic necessities of
life as food, energy, health insurance, medical and dental treatment not
covered by the health insurance and the like; and

2.            As documented by the 10 September 2002 letter of the Hoofd of
the Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid Utrecht, the termination of all
benefits (previously given to me as an asylum seeker and then as a
recognized political refugee) for such bare necessities as food, clothing
and other personal necessities, accommodation or housing, health insurance
and third party liability insurance.

All the money that goes in and out of the aforementioned joint bank account
is quite small, originates from your own social welfare agencies and is used
for bare subsistence. It is utterly inane and ridiculous  to claim that such
money has anything to do with terrorism. It is unjust and cruel to use such
false claim in order to deprive me of the basic necessities of life and thus
violate my basic human right to life.

Please be reminded that I am a recognized political refugee under the
protection of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (EVRM).  I demand
respect for my  rights and the rectfication  of the following wrongs against
me:  criminalization as a “terrorist”  without due process,  defamation of
my name in official  publications, and punitive measures up to denying me
the basic necessities of life and  thus violating my basic human right to
life.

No less than your agency for social welfare has suggested to me in so many
polite but threatening words in its 10 September 2002 letter that I may be
thrown out of the house where I live and be separated from my family
anytime.    Worst of all, there are persistent indications that your
government is colluding with the US government to circumvent and violate
Article 3 and the entirety of the EVRM by extraditing me on trumped up
charges by the US.

Thank you.

Respectfully,
Signed:  Prof. Jose Maria Sison

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