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?
Bert
De Belder
Solidaire Workers’ Party of Belgium
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to Alternative Reader Index
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 Rooseveltlaan 778”. 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
and 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)
==================
(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
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