CPP-NPA terrorist?

Wednesday November 2. 2005

UN report says CPP-NPA not a terror group
By Pia Lee-Brago
The Philippine Star 11/01/2005

Despite being listed as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) cannot be classified as a terror group, a United Nations report said.

The "Philippine Human Development Report" cited the the terrorist acts of groups like the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and other separatist movements as what set the difference between the CPP-NPA and these organizations.

"In fairness to the CPP-NPA's historical record of armed struggle, it has not, as a policy — and has not generally in practice — engaged in terrorism or acts of terrorism by deliberately targeting civilians," the report said.

"Unlike the Abu Sayyaf or the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), the CPP-NPA has no Islamic connection that could possibly put it in the network of al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah," it said, referring to the global terror network of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and its link to Southeast Asia.

"The CPP-NPA and, for that matter, the MILF, through its antecedent the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), have pre-dated al-Qaeda-type terrorism by several decades having instead come from the tradition of national liberation movements of the 1960s," it added.

The report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Human Development Network (HDN) and New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) also noted that the post-Sept. 11, 2001 US-led "global war on terror" has added fuel to the local war situation.

The Arroyo administration, the report said, has welcomed and taken advantage of the US-led listing of the CPP, its armed wing the NPA, and CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison as terrorists as shown in the President's nine-point guidelines regarding the CPP and by her order for redeployment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the NPA in August 2002.

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