Norway hosts GRP-NDF talks--embassy
Rebels list 13 ‘impediments’ to formal talks
Agence France-Presse, INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:06:00 05/16/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Norway has hosted talks between the government and exiled leaders of the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) a statement released Friday by the Norwegian said.
It said the two parties "exchanged views on the status of the peace process" and have agreed to meet again on an unspecified date "later this year" having asked Oslo to host the planned discussion.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called off peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) four years ago, concluding that it was not interested in a political settlement.
However Norway hosted an informal meeting between the two parties in a bid to restart the peace process.
"The Norwegian Government acted as host and third party facilitator to the talks, which took place at the request of the two parties," Raymond Johansen, State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement issued through the embassy.
"Norway is seeking to ensure that efforts to resolve 'forgotten conflicts' such as this receive the necessary international support," he added.
A Norwegian government website showed a picture of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, who lives in exile in the Netherlands, posing with Filipino government representative Nieves Confesor and their hosts during the May 13-15 consultations.
There was no immediate reaction from the Philippine government.
The NDF, in a statement released by their chief peace negotiator Luis Jalandoni, thanked the Norwegian government and expressed “its strong desire for the resumption” of formal talks.
However, Jalandoni said there exist “13 impediments that must be overcome” before formal negotiations can resume. “We stressed that overcoming these impediments is not a precondition but an obligation of the Arroyo government to comply with the agreements it has signed” with the NDF, he said.
Among the impediments, said Jalandoni, are the continued inclusion of Sison, the CPP and the New People’s Army in foreign terror listings, alleged human rights violations by the government, the “illegal suspension” of an immunity and safety agreement, and the continued failure to indemnify victims of human rights violations committed under the 14-year dictatorship of the late Ferdinand Marcos.
Arroyo has set a 2010 target for breaking the back of the 39 year-old rebellion, currently waged across the archipelago by about 5,000 NPA guerrillas and their substantial support base.
The insurgency has claimed tens of thousands of lives and Arroyo says it has set back the development of large areas of the Philippines, where NPA rebels attack businesses as part of extortion tactics to fund armed operations.
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