IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Appeal to Remove Prof. Jose Maria Sison
from the EU List of 'Terrorists'!!!

Committee DEFEND
23 May 2007

For many years already, the Council of the European Union has blacklisted Prof. Jose Maria Sison as a "terrorist". The Amnesty International has pointed out that his rights have been violated, including the right to the presumption of innocence, due process, defense and security from slander and attacks against his moral and physical integrity. And yet to this day, even the Dutch authorities which requested his blacklisting by the Council of the European Union acknowledge that there is no basis to investigate him for any act of terrorism or any other criminal act.

On 28 October 2002, the Council of the European Union added Prof. Sison to its list of 'terrorists". This decision was taken by written procedure, without any hearing and due process, without motivation whatsoever. Unjust measures have been taken against Prof. Sison, including the violation of his civil and political rights, banning him from work, terminating his social benefits (living allowance, housing, health insurance, civil liability insurance and old age pension), the freezing of funds and other financial assets or economic resources, stigmatization as a "terrorist" and threats to his moral and physical integrity..

With this decision, the European Union toes the line of the United States. On 9 August 2002, the US State Department listed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army as "foreign terrorist organisations", asking other governments to do the same. On 12 August 2002, the US Treasury Department listed Jose Maria Sison as a "terrorist" whose assets must be frozen. The following day the Dutch government also blacklisted him as a "terrorist", without any prior hearing.

Whenever the criminalisation and the repression of national liberation movements and other revolutionary organisations and individuals are concerned, the European Union applies exactly the same unjust and undemocratic standards and methods as the United States. The EU uncritically follows US President Bush in his "global war on terror" and supports his policy of launching wars of aggression, committing crimes against humanity and promoting fascism on a global scale under the pretext of anti-terrorism.

The US is targeting Prof. Jose Maria Sison because he has been a leading figure of the Filipino people's movement for national liberation and democracy. He was one of the pioneers who revived the anti-imperialist movement and anti-feudal in the Philippines in the early 60s. He re-established the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968. From 1977 to 1986, he was dictator Marcos' most prominent political prisoner. After his release from fascist prison, he returned to the University of the Philippines as a professor political science in 1986.

Since 1987, Prof. Jose Maria Sison has lived in the Netherlands. He is a political refugee under the protection of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. He is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. The Norwegian, Dutch and Belgian governments have facilitated these negotiations, and the European Parliament has endorsed them through several resolutions.

The NDFP (including the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People's Army) is a revolutionary united front in the Filipino people's struggle for national liberation and democracy, against imperialism and the local exploiting classes in the Philippines.. We reject the notion that such struggle is terrorism. We are concerned that legitimate political organisations and individuals, including legitimate asylum seekers and recognized political refugees, easily become the target of repressive measures in the guise of fighting terrorism.

The blacklisting of Prof. Sison and various anti-imperialist organizations by the European Union does not bode well for democracy in Europe. Groups and individuals who express and concretise their solidarity with them may be the next victims. The democratic rights to freedom of expression and of association are under attack. The highest sense of solidarity among all peoples is under challenge .

We demand from the European Union and its member states:

• the removal of Prof. Jose Maria Sison' s name from the list of the Council Common Position 2002/847/CFSP and Council Decision 2002/848/EC;
• full respect for the democratic rights of Jose Maria Sison as a recognized refugee under the relevant international conventions;
• encouragement to the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 as the framework agreement and respect for the 1997 and 1999 resolutions of the European Parliament supporting the aforesaid peace negotiations;
• refusal of any possible demand for his extradition or expulsion from The Netherlands.