The US wants to close the dragnet around Sison
The Netherlands has closed his
bank account and taken away his housing. What's next: extradition?
With a single stroke, Jose Maria
(Joma) Sison, a Philippine political refugee in the Netherlands, is penniless
and homeless. When he wanted to pay his bill in the Albert Hein supermarket or
for his dentist, he noted that his bank account was blocked. On the 12th of
September, he got a letter from the municipal government of Utrecht. It was a
shock: the letter announced that his social benefits, including housing, had
been stopped. These are all consequences of the latest
"anti-terrorist" measures of the Dutch government, issued on the
request of the United States. Rumors have it that the US may soon demand for
the extradition of Sison. This combines with an international smear campaign in
the mass media against him and against the entire Philippine revolutionary
movement.
Phase 1: Demonizing the target
On August 20, the Dutch TV's news
program 2Vandaag ('TV2 Today') brought an interview with Jose Maria Sison, as
the US had just placed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)--of which
Sison is the founding chairman--and the New People's Army (NPA) on its list of
"terrorist organizations," and the Netherlands had just blocked
Sison's bank account. The opening remark of journalist Jan Peters Lohper:
"Your hands are stained with blood!" While the voice off told the
audience about the NPA, images were shown of men in military uniform spraying
bullets on a poor farmer's hut, and of dangerous looking, heavily armed and
hooded men. A stark manipulation, as anybody who knows the Philippines could
immediately tell that these were images of the government's Armed Forces of the
Philippines and the paramilitary CAFGU's!
Next you see the cover of Amnesty
International's Report 2002. 2Vandaag goes on to show a 'quote,' complete with
quotation marks, as if the NPA would have a hit list of 345 people to be
executed. A check on AI's website and with the Asia Department of AI's London
headquarters learned that this 'quote' was a pure fabrication!
Last month, a picture made the
tour of the world's newspapers. It showed a girl in Manila, holding a poster
saying "Two faces of terror: Osama Bin Laden and Jose Maria Sison."
The Belgian conservative paper La Libre Belgique, for one, published the
picture prominently (1). The message is clear: Sison equals Bin Laden, so it's
open season against him, no holds barred. On September 16, the Manila weekly
Newsbreak carried a long article against the CPP, the NPA and Sison (2). The
magazine uses the words of certain 'dissidents' who have turned their back on
the revolutionary movement to suggest that the United States could ask for Sison's
extradition. Because "the CPP-NPA has repeatedly threatened Americans with
harm" and "the NPA has kidnapped foreigners." The article
concludes: "Nothing precludes [the Netherlands] from extraditing him to
the US - should the Americans ask for him."
Phase 2: Tightening the noose
On August 13, the Dutch government
issued the "Sanctions ruling terrorism 2002 III" (3), directed at the
New People's Army/Communist Party of the Philippines and at Jose Maria Sison.
The objective: to make Sison's life financially and materially unbearable.
"All means belonging to
[Sison] will be frozen. It is prohibited to undertake financial services for or
in favor of [him]," according to Article 2. A couple of days later,
Sison's personal bank account is already frozen. Jose Maria Sison has been an
asylum seeker in the Netherlands for quite some time. As a result of the Ruling
on the Reception of Asylum Seekers, he gets a monthly allowance for personal
expenses, a social benefit for housing and a health insurance. But in a letter
dated September 10, the municipal government of Utrecht ended all this
abruptly, in application of the "Sanctions ruling terrorism 2002
III."
"That means that you shall no
longer receive an allowance for personal expenses and you are no longer insured
against illness and the financial consequences of legal liability," the
letter explains dryly, and "you may therefore no longer make use of the
apartment on [XXX]." That's where Joma Sison is living with his wife Julie
and his son Jasm. "We still have no solution for the accommodation of the
members of your family," the letter continues. In the meantime, "we
allow them to stay in the house that we had made available to you." So
Joma is being expelled from his home, while his wife and son can continue to live
there, but only as an exceptional and temporary 'goodwill' measure!
With the same generosity, the
municipal government of Utrecht suggests that Sison can challenge this decision
before the minister of Finance on humanitarian grounds, as provided for in the
"Sanctions ruling terrorism 2002 III." Joma says on this matter:
"Of course, there is the hypocritical provision that I can get these on
'humanitarian grounds' if I beg for mercy. If I were to 'beg' for the basic
necessities of life on 'humanitarian grounds' under the terms of the 'Sanctions
ruling terrorism 2002 III,' will I not be moving into the trap of accepting the
unjust premises and terms of the said 'sanctions ruling'? Are not the Dutch
authorities violating my rights as a recognized political refugee by trying to
deprive me of the basic necessities of life, humiliating and degrading me by
compelling me to beg for these?"
Phase 3: Mounting a case
The (very limited) protection that
Sison enjoys in the Netherlands as a political refugee may be blown away
completely if and when the United States would demand his extradition.
Currently, there is no criminal case against him in the US, on the basis of
which extradition would become a possibility. But things may change.
Coincidentally, the murder of US colonel James 'Nick' Rowe has been rekindled
lately.
On April 21, 1989 - yes, more than
13 years ago! - an urban guerrilla squad of the NPA shot Rowe in Manila. The
man, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was the chief of the Joint U.S. Military
Advisory Group (JUSMAG) in Manila. This group trained the Philippine armed
forces in counterinsurgency and worked with the CIA on a strategy to infiltrate
the CPP and the NPA. Rowe appears to have been the control officer of those
infiltrators.(4)
Rowe is the highest US military
officer to have been killed in the Philippines, a feat that the United States
can hardly stomach. With each negotiation on the release of political prisoners
in the Philippines, the US embassy intervenes to demand that the suspected
perpetrators of the Rowe killing, Donato Continente en Juanito Itaas, would
certainly not be set free. The Rowe case may become the pretext for the US to
demand the extradition of Sison - although it remains a mystery how a jobless
professor and asylum seeker in the Netherlands could ever be held accountable
for that act. But of course, the ultimate objective of the US is to finish a
man who continues to play an important role as chief political consultant to
the National Democratic Front of the Philippines - the alliance of the
Philippine revolutionary organizations - and as the 'great old man' of the
revolutionary movement. Indeed, the US has a deep disgust for any struggle for
liberation, for this means, according to Joma Sison, "the liberation of
their imperialist exploitation."
The Netherlands as a US puppet
On August 9, the US State
Department designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New
People's Army as "foreign terrorist organizations" and implored other
governments to do the same. On August 12, the US Treasury Department listed the
CPP, the NPA and Jose Maria Sison as "terrorists" whose assets must
be frozen. On August 13 already, the Dutch authorities issued the
"Sanctions ruling terrorism 2002 III".(5) The Dutch government claims
"the necessity to take prompt measures" as a reason not to wait for
"conclusions that will follow at the European level." But by acting
so fast, the governmental ruling contained several factual errors. On August
23, the government already had to publish corrections regarding the place and
date of birth of Sison! (6)
In the "Sanctions ruling
terrorism 2002 III" not a single word of motivation can be found. Why to
list the NPA, the CPP and Sison as "terrorists"? Why freeze their
assets? No single reason is being given. Or is it just because the US has asked
so? In an explanation to the ruling the Dutch Foreign Minister de Hoop Scheffer
admits as much: Europe has to work "in close collaboration with the United
States," and the names referred to for the freezing of assets "are
also on an 'executive order' issued by US president Bush on August 12,
2002." Apparently, this suffices as a reason...
Philippine Senator Loren Legarda
praises Jose Maria Sison
"For more than three decades
now, Jose Maria Sison and a very special breed of Filipinos have pursued an
extraordinary course that has shaped post-war Philippine politics and society
in a fundamental way. One may not necessarily agree with their alternative
vision of Philippine society, but no one can doubt the integrity of their
patriotism or the depth of their commitment to help bring about a more just and
a more humane society." (7)
--Bert De Belder, Solidaire,
Workers' Party of Belgium
ITAL MIM has important
disagreements with the Workers' Party of Belgium or PTB, which we consider a
petit-bourgeois organization masquerading as a proletarian party. Interested
readers can check learn more at http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/wyl.
We reprint this article because it details the harassment Jose Maria Sison
faces at behest of the U.$. government. END
Notes: 1. August 17, p.9 2. http://www.inq7.net/nwsbrk/2002/sep/05/nbk_5-1.htm
3. Staatscourant nr.153, August 13 4. James Neilson, in U.S. Veteran News and
Report 5. Staatscourant nr.153, August 13 6. Staatscourant nr.161, August 23 7.
August 25, 2002 Gathering of 'Friends of Prof. Jose Maria Sison et al',
Executive House, UP Diliman, Metro Manila, Philippines