NDF: All-out war, rights violations obstacles to talks

Communist guerrillas said yesterday peace talks with President Arroyo’s administration were unlikely any time soon, after it asked Norway to sound out Manila over the stalled process.

"We hold the view that the all-out war policy and its concomitant human rights violations... are big obstacles to the resumption of the formal talks," chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni said in a statement.

The Netherlands-based Jalandoni and other leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its 7,400-member New People’s Army (NPA) visited Oslo last week to consult the Norwegian government about resuming negotiations between the rebels and Manila.

Norwegian foreign ministry official Tore Hattrem said after the meetings that Norway saw no chance of a rapid resumption of peace talks toward a political settlement to the 37-year-old insurgency.

Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye subsequently ruled out peace talks unless the rebels agreed to an immediate nationwide ceasefire.

But Jalandoni implicitly rejected the government demand on Tuesday, alleging that Manila "is trying in vain to deceive the people by demanding a permanent or prolonged ceasefire without any prior agreements on social, economic and political reforms that are satisfactory to the people."

Mrs. Arroyo has ordered a military offensive to rid the provinces around Manila of guerrilla influence within two years, after shelving talks for a political settlement with the Maoists in 2004.

The President said the offensive should curtail the extortion of businesses in the country’s economic heartland, the main source of funding for one of the world’s last remaining Maoist guerrilla movements. — AFP