U.S. Declares Open Season vs CPP/NPA
Worsening of abuses against civil liberties seen

U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell this Saturday justified the designation of the CPP as a terrorist organization because it aims to overthrow the Philippine government through guerrilla warfare. The CPP, he said, "strongly opposes any U.S. presence in the Philippines and has killed U.S. citizens there.  The group has also killed, injured, or kidnapped numerous Philippine citizens, including government officials."

By CARLOS H. CONDE
Bulatlat.com

In a move that the Arroyo administration will most likely use as an additional justification for its intensified counter-insurgency campaign, the United States has declared the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as a "foreign terrorist organization (FTO)," joining 33 other groups in such a classification by the U.S. State Department.

U.S. Secretary Colin Powell made the designation in Washington, D.C., on August 9, a week after he visited the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries in an attempt to consolidate support for the U.S.'s so-called worldwide war on terrorism.

"Today we are taking another important step in our continuing efforts to combat global terrorism.  I am announcing the designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army (CPP/NPA) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, as defined under U.S. law.  I made this decision in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury after an exhaustive review of this group's violent activities," Powell said in a statement released Saturday by the State Department.

Despite Powell’s statement, Eduardo Ermita, presidential adviser on the peace process, said “the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front, which also includes the CPP, will continue. “This policy will continue,” he said.

Powell justified the designation of the CPP as a terrorist organization by pointing out that the Maoist group, which he said was founded in 1969 (actually December 1968), aims to overthrow the Philippine government through guerrilla warfare. The CPP, he said, "strongly opposes any U.S. presence in the Philippines and has killed U.S. citizens there.  The group has also killed, injured, or kidnapped numerous Philippine citizens, including government officials."

He said the U.S. government will "impose measures against these terrorist groups in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, which was originally enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.  This law makes it illegal for persons in the United States or subject to U.S. jurisdiction to provide material support or resources to these terrorist groups; it requires U.S. financial institutions to block assets held by them or their agents; and it makes representatives and members of these groups, if they are aliens, inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the United States."  

Curtailing support

According to Powell, FTO designations "play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.  I hope this list will draw the attention of foreign governments around the world to this group and to the other FTOs.  I also hope it will encourage those governments to take action, as we have, to isolate these terrorist organizations, to choke off their sources of financial support, and to prevent their movement across international borders."

Aside from the CPP, the Abu Sayyaf is also in the FTO list. The list also includes such groups as Hamas, which has claimed responsibility for the spate of bombings in Israel, the Shining Path of Peru and the al-Qaeda. Groups that are classified by some as revolutionary - not terrorist - are also in  the list, such as the Tamil Tigers and Colombia's Revolutionary Armed  Forces of Colombia (FARC). (See complete list below.)

Powell's announcement also came a few days after the Arroyo administration declared the intensification of its military campaign against the CPP/NPA, which it calls a terrorist group. The U.S. is financing this so-called all-out war and Powell's designation could justify such funding as well as the Americans' involvement in what is long considered a domestic conflict.

Joel Virador of the human-rights group Karapatan in Southern Mindanao said this could mean more human-rights abuses, "probably worse than what is happening now in the name of this so-called war against terror." Since the U.S. enlisted the support of the Philippines in its campaign against al-Qaeda, countless Filipinos have been arrested without warrants and jailed without charges in Basilan, Manila and elsewhere.

"Declaring revolutionary organizations such as the CPP/NPA as terrorist groups is practically a declaration of an open season against anybody who dares criticize the Arroyo regime and U.S. policies against sovereign nations," Virador said, noting that, of late, the Arroyo administration has been branding as Communists those who have been criticizing its actions and policies.

As it is, he said, the military's human-rights record is dismal. The U.S. move, he said, "will definitely worsen the human-rights situation in the Philippines."

The inclusion of the CPP in the state department’s terrorist list is not new, however, as it had been cited an FTO several years ago. In recent months, however, President Arroyo and her armed forces officials have urged the U.S. government to formally classify the local leftist guerrillas as “terrorist” to justify, reports said, an increase in U.S. military support particularly in government’s counter-insurgency campaign.

This week, CPP spokesman Ka Roger Rosal warned U.S. armed forces they would be fair target if they intruded into the guerrilla zones of the New People’s Army.  Bulatlat.com

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 Below is the list of FTOs, as released by the US State Department's Office of Counterterrorism: 

1. Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)

2. Abu Sayyaf Group

3. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

4. Armed Islamic Group

5. 'Asbat al-Ansar

6. Aum Shinrikyo

7. Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)

8. Gama a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group)

9. Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)

10. Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)

11. Hizballah (Party of God)

12. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)

13. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) (Army of Mohammed)

14. Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)

15. Kahane Chai (Kach)

16. Kurdistan Workers  Party (PKK)

17. Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT) (Army of the Righteous)

18. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

19. Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK)

20. National Liberation Army (ELN)

21. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)

22. Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)

23. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

24. PFLP-General Command (PFLP-GC)

25. Al-Qaida

26. Real IRA

27. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

28. Revolutionary Nuclei (formerly ELA)

29. Revolutionary Organization 17 November

30. Revolutionary People s Liberation Army/Front (DHKP/C)

31. Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)

32. Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso, SL)

33. United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)

34. Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army (CPP/NPA)

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