An Open Letter from Peace Advocates in Japan

By the Japan Network for a Peaceful, Sovereign and Free Philippines (JNPSFP)

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President George W. Bush Jr.

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

United States of America

Prime Minsiter Jan Peter Balkenende

Binnenhof 20

Postbus 20001 2500 EA Den Haag

The Netherlands

Prime Minister Jean Chretien

Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa

K1A 0A2

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines 

Malacanang Palace

Manila, Philippines

Dear Heads of State, 

Greetings of Peace! 

We, the peace loving people of Japan wish to express our strongest objection to the action that your governments are involved with in creating an atmosphere of fascism and terror of war all over the world. We are very much disturbed by US President Bush’s neo-fascist passion of bullying legitimate governments of Iraq, Iran, North Korea and others in his so-called list of “Axis of Evil.” Moreover, we denounce George W. Bush for making inutile the role of the United Nation Security Council with respect to solving the issues of Iraq with his tough insistence to bomb Iraqi people regardless of any UN resolutions. 

Our concerns grow deeper that this Bush war on terror is not only intended against nations and states who together with its country people do not subscribe to US interests. This Bush war on terror is also directed against patriotic country people opposed to the US puppet governments like the Philippines. Recently, we found very alarming the US branding of Professor Jose Maria Sison, a recognized political asylum seeker in the Netherlands, as a terrorist and listed his founded Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA) as Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) with the immediate reciprocation of the Philippines, The Netherlands and Canada. 

Your recent acts as head of states in demonizing CPP and NPA and its founder is in complete disregard and disrespect to the peace initiatives being pushed for a decade now by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines  (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) of which the CPP and NPA are organization members. May this letter remind you of the January 14, 1999 European Parliament resolution supporting the peace talks between the GRP and NDFP and your deeds in criminalizing the CPP-NPA is inconsistent and disrespectful to the said European Parliament resolution. 

The act of demonizing the CPP/NPA and personalities behind the NDFP such as Prof Sison is seen as sick justification to the international community and as a prelude for the US military’s direct involvement in fighting the Philippine local liberation movement (CPP-NPA-NDFP) and at worst making the Philippines into a new Vietnam. 

More so, this demonizing tactics under Bush war on terror is in concert with The Netherlands government who in August 15, 2002 terminated the benefits to the Sison family as recognized asylum seeker including allowances for foods and other basic necessities, housing, and health insurance and third party liability insurance. This effectively deprived the Sison family the basic necessities of life. In effect, the Dutch government is violating the Refugee Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (EVRM) of which the Sison family is under protection.  

Prof. Sison’s rights are violated when he was criminalized as a “terrorist” without the benefit of due process, being demonized as such by name in official public announcements and being subjected to punitive measures that deprive Mr. Sison of basic necessities of life and that violates his basic human rights to live. In-fact, nowhere in the world, not even in the Philippines, is there any charge of common crime or political crime against Prof Sison. The Manila government declared in 1998 that there is no pending criminal charge against Prof Sison even up to now. 

Alarming to this date is the move of the Philippine and the United States government to fabricate a criminal case against Prof Sison to justify the Bush request to the Dutch government to extradite Prof Sison to the

United States. This extradition of Prof Sison will enable the Bush government to create again an internationally sensational trial of Prof Sison to make the world believe of the threat of terrorism in the Philippines. Thus, US troops involvement in counter insurgency operation, or even making another Vietnam War in the Philippines will be justified. 

We cannot keep our silence any more to the fact that you are railroading the world into war against nation and states and against patriotic people. We are raising high our voices in this petition to claim our political right to defend peace internationally. Consequently, we are affixing our signatures for you to hear our collective will against war and against prosecuting a peacemaker - Prof Jose Maria Sison.  

We are shouting for peace and enough for your war mongering!

No to Iraq War!

No to another Vietnam War in the Philippines! 

In behalf of all the signatories, 

Japan Network for a Peaceful, Sovereign and Free Philippines (JNPSFP)

C/O FMC, 4-D Maruzen Bldg.

4-20-11 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya-shi

Tel/Fax no. 052 243 2527

Email: JNPSFP@hotmail.com

September 21, 2002   

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