By FIDEL V. AGCAOILI
Member, NDFP Negotiating Panel
Chairperson, NDFP Human Rights Committee
Under International Humanitarian Law and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the New People’s Army is committed not to direct its gunfire and land mines against the civilians but is allowed to direct the same against military targets, including combat troops whether they are walking or riding in any military or military-commandeered vehicle.
We consider as vague and confusing any blanket prohibition of anti-personnel mines without any clear distinction between military personnel and civilians. It is well known that when the NPA uses either contact-detonated or command-detonated land mines these are for a limited time and limited range per occasion under close supervision of the NPA command concerned in order to attain zero risk for civilians.
GENEVA CALL
70, Route du Pont-Butin
PO Box 334
CH-1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland
Attention:
Ms. Katherine Kramer
Programme Coordinator
Email: [email protected]
Dear Ms. Kramer:
On behalf of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and its Human Rights Committee and in reply to your 25 October 2005 email, I wish to state the position of the NDFP on the contents of your draft Profile of the CPP/NPA/NDFP.
- The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Command of the New People’s Army and the National Council of the NDFP are all based in the Philippines and make their policies and decisions there. We in the NDFP object strongly to the incriminating allegations in the aforementioned Profile that our Chief Political Consultant is the Chairman of the CPP Central Committee and makes the policies and decisions in The Netherlands for the revolutionary organizations in the Philippines.
We cannot be a party in any way to your publication of the so-called profile. In fact, we are offended by the attempt to incriminate not only Prof. Sison but also other individuals and entities cooperating with him in The Netherlands. Geneva Call should not be an instrument for spreading hysteria with the use of the terrorist bogey against national liberation movements.
- Under International Humanitarian Law and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the New People’s Army is committed not to direct its gunfire and land mines against the civilians but is allowed to direct the same against military targets, including combat troops whether they are walking or riding in any military or military-commandeered vehicle.
We consider as vague and confusing any blanket prohibition of anti-personnel mines without any clear distinction between military personnel and civilians. It is well known that when the NPA uses either contact-detonated or command-detonated land mines these are for a limited time and limited range per occasion under close supervision of the NPA command concerned in order to attain zero risk for civilians.
- The NDFP has never signed the so-called Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines and for Cooperation in Mine Action for several reasons. First, we do not agree with the highest priority given to land mines and the hype in making them appear as the weapon most destructive to civilians, while the imperialist and puppet states freely use against the people far more destructive weapons like artillery, cluster bombs and other types of plane-delivered bombs, cruise missiles and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Second, we do not agree with the denigration of national liberation movements as “nonstate actors” even when these have acquired the inherent status of belligerency and have a revolutionary government against the reactionary government Third, we do not agree with the notion that land mines are beyond responsible control and cannot be directed against military targets.
- The NDFP and its allied organizations have not signed the aforementioned deed of commitment and are not at all bound by its framework and terms. They do not submit themselves to the authority and judgment of Geneva Call or any of its derivative fora.
Of course, any entity has the freedom of opinion. But the NDFP always demands due process and fair hearing before judgment is rendered.
- The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) has signed and approved the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. But until now, the military forces use land mines and lay them on paths where they expect the NPA and the people to take.
We hope we have made our position clear on the contents of your so-called profile on the CPP/NPA/NDFP.
I am sorry I cannot be available in Manila on the dates that you said you will be travelling there. As you know, the office of the NDFP-Human Rights Monitoring Committee is in Utrecht, The Netherlands. If you wish further discussions on the above, you may come and visit us here.
Very truly yours,
FIDEL V. AGCAOILI
Member, NDFP Negotiating Panel
Chairman, NDFP Human Rights Committee
