NETHERLANDS: EXILED COMMUNIST LEADER JOSE MARIA SISON SAYS MARXIST REBELS WANT TO RESUME PEACE TALKS WITH THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT

Record ID: 190469

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: EXILED COMMUNIST LEADER JOSE MARIA SISON SAYS MARXIST REBELS WANT TO RESUME PEACE TALKS WITH THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT
  • Date: 20th August 2002
  • Summary: (W3) UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS (AUGUST 20,2002) (REUTERS-ACCSESS ALL) 1. SV: JOSE MARIA SISON WALKING ON STREET INTO OFFICE 0.14 2. VARIOUS OF JOSE MARIA SISON SITTING AT TABLE READING (6 SHOTS) 1.17 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) JOSE MARIA SISON SAYING: "I would say that the Philippine people and the current revolutionary forces are very determined to continue the peoples war, because the conditions of oppressions and exploration is becoming worse and worse." 1.35 4. SV: JOURNALIST LISTENING TO SISON 1.41 5. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "There are so many young people who have become communist. They form a big reservoir for along term struggle until victory is won. During the time of (former president Ferdinand) Marcos we used to employ the basketball term. The communist party has a "deep bench". You kill some of them or you imprison some of them they will increase. Because the people encourages such leaders to arise because they are in this time opposing modern imperialism. You can only have the communist as best possible leaders" 2.26 6. CU: HAND WRITING NOTES 2.32 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "You know I have always denounced Abu-Sayaf as a small bandit gang on a small island. It was created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a special team headed by general Guillermo Louise of the Philippine army. The revolutionary forces, I think represented by the spokesman comrade Ka Roger the information department officer of the communist part of the Philippines. He has been denouncing as nothing but a creation of the US and than using it as pretext for the U.S to conduct military intervention in the Philippines. You know that the US has been quite a big failure running after the al-Qaeda, another creation of the CIA. It topple a whole government, but al-Qaeda is very much around." 3.35 8. PAN OF SHELF WITH FOLDERS 3.44 9. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "It's not clear whether the resumption can be done soon the problem lies with the Manila government. There is no problem what so ever from the view point from the National Democratic Front of the Philippine. All what the National Democratic Front of the Philippines is demanding is that there is compliance by both sides with a joint declaration and the nine agreements that have been signed and approved at the highest level of the two sides." 4.25 10. SV: JOURNALIST TALKING TO SISON 4.29 11. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "The problem with this designation of the communist part of the Philippine and the New Peoples Army as terrorist. And also I have been as an individual been designated as a terrorist. The problem here is that as so far the Manila government endorses the position of the US. The Manila government violates the joint agreement on safety and immunity guarantees." 4.58 12. CLOSE UP SISON'S FACE 5.03 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "I am a recognised political refugee here. I am protected by the Geneva Convention on refugees and by the European convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Not even the Dutch government can kick me out of this country" 526 14. WIDE OF JOURNALIST AND SISON SITTING TALKING 5.32 15. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) SISON SAYING: "I would return to the Philippine when the conditions permit. When I won't be killed just like that not so much by the official system but by the unofficial agents of those who are in power. And off course as one protected by article three of the European convention, the court shall recognise that I run the risk of being tortured and subjected to in human treatment or degrading treatment should I return to the Philippines." 6.10 16. TILT FROM POSTER TO SISON READING 6.17 17. SVOF SISON READING 6.21 18. PAN FROM BOOKSHELF TO BOX OF LEAFLETS SAYING LIBERATION 6.32 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVABPHBS888NDVLPUMX2II3A6C8T
  • Story Text: Marxist rebels want to resume peace talks with the
    Philippine government despite being blacklisted by the U.S. as
    "terrorists", Jose Maria Sison, the exiled communist leader
    close to the guerrillas told Reuters

    Philippine Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison,
    who has lived in the Netherlands for 15 years, said that the
    "Philippine people and the current revolutionary forces are
    very determined to continue the peoples war, because the
    conditions of oppressions and exploration is becoming worse
    and worse," he said on Tuesday (August 20).

    More than 40,000 people have died in a communist rebellion
    waged by the National Democratic Front (NDF) for 33 years to
    establish a Marxist state in the largely Catholic Philippines.

    "There is no problem what so ever from the view point from the
    National Democratic Front of the Philippine. All what the
    National Democratic Front of the Philippines is demanding is
    that there is compliance from both sides with a joint
    declaration and the nine agreements that have been signed and
    approved at the highest level of the two sides." the
    63-year-old Sison said from his office in the town of Utrecht,
    just outside Amsterdam.

    The Philippine government has also blacklisted the
    communist party and its armed wing. Earlier this month
    Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the
    military to step up its campaign against the guerrillas. The
    NDF incorporates the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
    and its military wing the New People's Army (NPA),which
    reportedly takes orders from the 63-year-old Sison.

    "The problem with this designation of the communist part
    of the Philippine and the New Peoples Army as terrorist. And
    also I have been as an individual been designated as a
    terrorist. The problem here is that as so far the Manila
    government endorses the position of the US. The Manila
    government violates the joint agreement on safety and immunity
    guarantees", said Sison, whose assets also have recently been
    frozen by the Dutch government at the request of the U.S.

    Sison also adds that in fact Communist guerrillas have
    warned that they would attack American troops and business
    interests in the country if the US forces joined in the local
    military's fight against them.

    "The revolutionary forces, I think represented by the
    spokesman comrade Ka Roger the information department officer
    of the communist part of the Philippines. He has been
    denouncing as nothing but a creation of the US and than using
    it as pretext for the US to conduct military intervention in
    the Filipinos. You know that the US has been quite a big
    failure running after the al-Qaeda, another creation of the
    CIA. It topple a whole government, but al-Qaeda is very much
    around," said the slightly built, bespectacled Sison.

    After more than a decade living in exile, Sison wishes to
    once return to his homeland, but only when "the conditions
    permit. When I won't be killed just like that not so much by
    the official system but by the unofficial agents of those who
    are in power. And off course as one protected by article three
    of the European convention, the court shall recognise that I
    run the risk of being tortured and subjected to in human
    treatment or degrading treatment, should I return to the
    Philippines," Sison said.


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