BELGIUM: PEACE TALKS BETWEEN COMMUNIST REBELS AND THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT ARE SUSPENDED

Record ID: 350268

  • Title: BELGIUM: PEACE TALKS BETWEEN COMMUNIST REBELS AND THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT ARE SUSPENDED
  • Date: 27th June 1995
  • Summary: BELGIUM, BRUSSELS (JUNE 27, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV EXTERIOR OF PHILIPPINE EMBASSY 0.05 2. SCU EMBASSY SIGN AND FLAG 0.13 3. SCU HOWARD DEE, CHAIRMAN OF THE NEGOTIATING PANEL OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT, SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 0.48 4. SV NEWS REPORTERS ATTENDING CONFERENCE 0.52 5. SCU DEE SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.14
  • Embargoed: 12th July 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVKWI9T0TNTDQIC2YJKZNAYEO
  • Story Text: Peace talks between the Philippines communist rebels and the government were suspended on Tuesday (June 27) because of a dispute over the release of a communist leader, the head of the government negotiating panel said.

    "I would like to announce that the GRP (Philippine Government Panel) is suspending the peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF)," Howard Dee, chairman of the Philippine government panel, told a news conference in Brussels.

    The negotiations had been due to open at 10 am (0800 GMT) in Brussels but Dee said the communist rebel delegation had not arrived for the negotiations.

    The rebels have demanded the release of dissident leader Sotero Llamas, a member of the panel representing the communist-led NDF.

    Llamas was arrested in May after a skirmish with Philippine government forces in which one soldier was killed.

    "The Philippine government will not be held hostage to the NDF declaration that they will not proceed to substantive talks unless Mr Sotero Llamas is released from detention and brought to Belgium," Dee said.

    The NDF said on Monday that it was delaying the peace talks until Llamas arrived in Belgium.

    Dee said the government panel had consistently asserted that the release of Llamas was in the hands of the courts and as it was not possible to wait for Llamas the government panel would leave for Manila on Wednesday.

    The conflict in the Philippines is one of southeast Asia's longest-running communist insurgencies.

    The largely countryside war has killed 40,000 people since university instructor Jose Maria Sison and a group of students founded the Maoist NDF party in 1968.


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