[van-announce] Updates on campaign to defend Prof. Sison

[B.C. Commitee for Human Rights in the Philippines]

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings of solidarity!  Please find below a statement made by
Professor Jose Maria Sison at a press conference held in the Netherlands
regarding his political persecution by the U.S., Dutch, and Philippine
government.  Following the statement, is a press release from the Committee
to Defend Filipino Progressives in Europe regarding the growing support for
Professor Sison's case.

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

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OPENING STATEMENT AT PRESS CONFERENCE

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant,
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
18 September 2000
Utrecht, The Netherlands

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen of the press,

Friends:

As soon as I learned that thousands of civilians were killed in the
September 11 attacks, I expressed deep sorrow and wholehearted sympathy to
their families, friends and the entire American people.

I condemned those acts of terrorism. I said that the victims did not deserve
to die. And I also said that the American people must reflect on why the
U.S. government, its armed forces and big business firms arouse so much
hatred in the world.

By way of helping the American people reflect, I mentioned the fact that the
US was responsible for the killing of 1.4 million Filipinos from the start
of the Filipino-American War in 1899 to the end of the so-called
pacification campaigns in 1914. This fact of history proves the
superterrorism of US imperialism, even if we were not to mention yet the
daily violence of superexploitation that the US and the local exploiting
classes continue to inflict on the Filipino people.

Cultist terrorist groups like Al Qaida and Abu Sayyaf, both originally
created by the US Central Intelligence Agency, are minor terrorists relative
to those forces that have undertaken colonialism, ignited global wars among
the imperialists, used fascism to ride on economic crises, waged wars of
aggression and installed puppet regimes of terror like the Marcos fascist
dictatorship of recent memory in the Philippines.

The terrorism of those responsible for the September 11 attacks is horribly
unjust. But it is also unjust for the US government to engage in far larger
acts of terrorism by using the September 11 attacks as the pretext or
license for misrepresenting as "terrorist" the highly principled
revolutionary forces and movements of national liberation, democracy and
socialism.

The US government is absolutely wrong in labelling as "terrorist" such
revolutionary forces as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the
New People’s Army. These forces and their mass following in 128 guerrilla
fronts, in nearly 20 per cent of Philippine villages and in around 70
provinces, have a written constitution with a bill of rights.

They establish organs of political power, elect their officials, have a
well-disciplined people’s army, build mass organizations of workers,
peasants, women, youth, cultural activists and other sectors and carry out
mass campaigns for the social good, involving mass education, land reform,
production, health and hygiene, settlement of disputes, self-defense and so
on.

Since 1992, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has
represented the aforesaid revolutionary forces in preliminary and formal
peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines
(GRP). The Dutch, Belgian and Norwegian governments have facilitated these
negotiations within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration of 1
September 1992.

In the striving for a just and lasting peace, ten agreements have already
been reached by the NDFP and GRP. The most important substantive agreement
so far reached is the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law. The NDFP has been insistent on the
soonest formation of the Joint Monitoring Committee in order to promote the
implementation of the agreement and tackle the complaints.

With the highest sense of political responsibility, the NDFP has deposited
with the Swiss Federal Council a Unilateral Declaration of Undertaking to
Apply the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I.

The US State Department is unjust for designating the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as "terrorist"
organizations. The US Treasury Department is likewise unjust for listing
these two organizations and an individual like me, the NDFP chief political
consultant, as subject to the freeze of assets on the presumption that they
are "terrorist".

The aforesaid actions of the US government prejudice the continuance of the
NDFP-GRP peace negotiations and throw fuel into the flames of the civil war
in the Philippines. By criminalizing as "terrorist" the CPP, NPA and the
NDFP chief political consultant, the NDFP is being pre-empted from
representing the CPP and NPA and from including in its delegation and in the
ranks of its staff and consultants those who come from the CPP and NPA.

The NDFP negotiating panel is either being placed under duress or is already
on the way to being criminalized as "terrorist" simply because the US
government wishes this.

By following the baton of the US in designating the CPP and NPA as
"terrorists" and taking punitive measures against those suspected of
belonging to the CPP and NPA, the Dutch government is running counter to its
own commitment to facilitate and support the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and
to the 1997 and 1999 resolutions of the Euro-parliament which endorse and
support these negotiations.

As early as November last year, soon after GRP President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo met US President Bush, I learned that the US and Philippine
governments had agreed to put a squeeze play on the NDFP negotiating panel
and the NDFP chief political consultant. According to a high official of the
Manila government, the US would take a series of steps up to the point of
extraditing me from the Netherlands.

The objective of the scheme is to compel me as NDFP chief political
consultant and the NDFP negotiating panel to opt for capitulation in the
peace negotiations or else the worst of punitive measures would be applied
on me and eventually on the NDFP negotiating panel and even on the NDFP
consultants who reside in Manila.

I am supposed to serve as the example for targeting by the unchallengeable
and unstoppable power of the US if the NDFP would not capitulate to the GRP
in a sham peace agreement.

According to the aforesaid high official of the GRP, the series of steps
ranged against me include the following:

1.      Listing as "terrorist" and freeze of assets at the national level of
the Dutch government;

  1.. Deprivation of benefits (allowance for food and other basic
necessities, housing and health insurance) and adverse chain reaction on the
living conditions of my family;
  2.. Publicized raid on our apartment and possible arrest to degrade me
before the Dutch public;
  3.. "Terrorist" listing at the European level;
  4.. Provisional detention upon request of the US government; and
  5.. Extradition to a US territory.
Also according to the aforesaid GRP official, the US is ready to fabricate
records of investigation and findings and to gather new testimonies as basis
for a criminal complaint against me in order to overcome the 1998
declaration of the Manila government that there is no pending criminal case
againt me and to lay the ground for a US request for my extradition.

Furthermore, the US is working to overcome the protection that I get from
the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by giving assurances to the Dutch
government that the death sentence shall not be made and if made, shall not
be carried out. All along, in violation of the US-Netherlands extradition
treaty, the political character and political purpose of the trumped up
charge of a common crime are to be denied or glossed over.

We are now at step No. 2 above. As of now, certain basic rights under the
international bill of rights, under the Refugee Convention, the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and International Humanitarian
Law and even Dutch law are so grossly and wantonly violated.

1.      I am criminalized as a "terrorist" without the benefit of due
process;

  1.. I am demonised as "terrorist" under my full name in official
publications; and
  2.. I am deprived of the basic necessities of life in violation of the
most basic human right to life.
We know that the US and Dutch governments have gone this far. They can go
further in persecuting and running me down if I do not have the competent
legal counsel and the support of people who love justice and peace and who
resist the arrogance and oppressiveness of imperial power.

You can keep track of my continuing struggle by visiting the following
websites: www.defendsison.be and www.inps-sison.freewebspace.com. In the
meantime, I can answer your questions at this press conference.#

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Press Release

18 September 2002

DUTCH CLERGYMEN EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR PROF. SISON



In a press conference on the plight of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, two Dutch
clergymen, Archbishop Joris Vercammen of the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht
and Dominee Hans Visser of Paulus Kerk of Rotterdam, expressed their dismay
and disapproval of the actions taken by the Dutch government to brand Prof.
Sison as a terrorist and cut off the social benefits due him as a political
refugee.

Dominee Visser said that he had consistently supported Prof. Sison’s
long-running fight for asylum and residence in the Netherlands. He has
supported the campaign launched by sympathizers, friends and concerned
citizens to press the Dutch government to grant Prof. Sison’s asylum
application in the face of pressure exerted by the US and Philippine
governments to reject such application.

Dominee Visser said that he found it ridiculous for the Dutch government to
put Prof. Sison in the same league as Osama bin Laden.

Archbishop Vercammen for his part expressed concern that the actions of the
US and Dutch governments to brand the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison as
"terrorists" would have dire implications on the peace negotiations between
the Manila government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDFP). He read portions of a letter sent to him by Supreme Bishop Tomas A.
Millamena of the Philippine Independent Church criticizing Philippine
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for jumping on the bandwagon of the US’s
so-called "war against terrorism", suspending the peace negotiations and
launching an all-out war against the forces of the NDFP.

Archbishop Vercammen said that the real problem in the Philippines is the
poverty that he saw for himself during his recent visit to the Philippines.
He said that the peace negotiations between the Manila government and the
NDFP must be resumed and must tackle the problem of poverty.

In the same press conference, Prof. Sison recalled that as soon as he
learned that thousands of civilians were killed in the September 11 attacks,
he expressed sorrow and sympathy to the families, friends and the entire
American people and condemned the acts of terrorism. But he also said that
the American people must reflect on why the US government, its armed forces
and big business firms arouse so much hatred in the world.

He pointed to the fact that the US was responsible for the killing of 1.4
million Filipinos from the start of the Filipino-American war in 1899 to the
end of the so-called pacification campaigns in 1914. It was also the US who
instigated Marcos to declare martial law in the Philippines and supported
his dictatorial regime that victimized tens of thousands of Filipinos who
were jailed, tortured, disappeared and summarily executed. The terrorism of
Al Qaeda pales in comparison to these crimes, he said.

Sison said that by following the baton of the US in designating the CPP and
NPA as "terrorists" and taking punitive actions against suspected members of
the said organizations, the Dutch government was running counter to its own
commitment to facilitate the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and to the 1997 and
1999 resolutions of the Europarliament which endorse and support these
negotiations.

Dominee Visser said that he supports Prof. Sison’s fight for his basic right
to life. He said: "It is a stupid decision to deprive Prof. Sison of his
basic needs." He said that he would continue to support Prof. Sison’s asylum
case and the resumption of the peace negotiations.

Archbishop Vercammen said that if the Dutch government is aware of the
importance of the peace negotiations, then the Dutch government must take a
different position and not always follow what the US government wants
because the US has its own agenda and its own interests. #



For more information, contact:

Ruth de Leon

Committee DEFEND

Postbus 15687, 1001 ND Amsterdam, The Netherlands

tel. 030-2368722

email: defenddemrights at yahoo.com



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