Thursday, August 12, 2004 Communist group shelves talks over US terror tag
MANILA -- Communist rebels said Wednesday they are shelving peace talks with the government after the US froze royalties on the sales of a book by their leader Jose Maria Sison, who is demanding indemnity from Manila.
The National Democratic Front "has decided to call for a postponement of the next round of talks in order to give time to the government of the Republic of the Philippines to fulfill its obligations," chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni said.
Chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello III, however, said the communist group has no ground or basis to delay or declare a unilateral suspension of the peace negotiations.
Jalandoni, who like Sison is based in the Netherlands, accused Washington of sabotaging the peace talks by renewing its listing of the front's mother organization, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and its 8,600-member New People's Army as "terrorist" organizations.
The two rebel leaders demanded that Manila apply pressure on its ally the United States to lift the terror tag so the negotiations for a political settlement to the 35-year-old rebellion could resume.
They also said Manila failed to comply with its promise to release 270 alleged political offenders and indemnify close to 10,000 human rights victims during the Martial Law period including Sison.
But Bello said the issues raised by the rebels to justify the shelving of the talks scheduled from August 24-30 in Oslo, Norway were simply not true.
He criticized the rebels for setting pre-conditions for the Norway talks.
Book royalties
Sison claimed the royalties on his biography had been frozen by the US Treasury Department as a result of the terror listing.
The CPP and its armed wing was first designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002, and the order was renewed on Monday.
Sison, who founded the CPP in the late 1960s, fled to Europe after the collapse of peace talks in 1987.
"This royalty payment has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. It is paid in accordance with a pre-2002 contract which is perfectly legal," Sison said in a statement released here.
"I am unlawfully deprived of what belongs to me."
A US embassy spokesman said she had no information on any freeze order for royalties on the former university professor's book, "Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World (Portrait of a Revolutionary), Conversations with Ninotchka Rosca".
Bello said in a television interview that that justification for postponing the talks "is very flimsy".
He insisted that government had already complied with other communist requests such as the release of captured rebels and making efforts to indemnify the victims of human rights abuses.
Bello said more than 80 percent of the list of alleged political offenders submitted by the NDF to the government had already been freed and "we're still in the process of obtaining the release of the remaining political offenders."
P8 billion
In the case of the human rights victims, President Arroyo has committed the setting aside of P8 billion, which would be released as soon as Congress passes a law amending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) Law.
The funds were part of numbered bank accounts that were turned over to Manila by Switzerland after Filipino courts ruled Marcos had embezzled them from the National Treasury.
Under the Carp Law, all alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses recovered by the government would be spent only on agrarian reform.
No less than Jalandoni acknowledged government's fulfillment of its "confidence building commitment" during the third round of talks last July, Bello pointed out.
On the US renewing its listing of the CPP and NPA as foreign terror organizations, Bello said this has been explained to the communist group in past talks that Manila could not make demands on an independent and sovereign country like the United States.
He said that government had urged the NPA to stop its terrorist activities like extortions and ambuscades if it really wanted to be de-listed.
According to Bello, the NDF should have also consulted, if not informed out of courtesy, the Norwegian Government which is the host and third party facilitator of the talks.
He also reminded the NDF of their agreement at the start of the negotiations that the talks should and would be pursued without any pre-condition.
Bello claimed to have talked the matter over with Jalandoni, with whom he even had lunch with Wednesday, who assured him that the NDF remain open to the talks. (AFP/JMR)
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