From: Bill Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Philippines: Communists protest US troops HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 3:42 PM Subject: Philippines: Communists protest US troops Reuters. 26 January 2002. Manila Rejects Communist Protest Over U.S. Troops. MANILA -- The Philippine government said on Saturday it refused to be intimidated by local communists opposing Manila's joint military exercises with U.S. forces in the south of the country. Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said that Netherlands-based Philippine Communist Party chief Jose Maria Sison had ordered his group's front organizations last week to "vigorously oppose and resist" the joint training, dubbed Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder). "Sison has ordered his organizations to drop everything and focus on anti-Balikatan propaganda war," Tiglao said in a statement. "He has also asked his agitators in pickets to provoke the police to violence in order to gain public sympathy for his demonstrators." "This administration definitely will not be intimidated by the communist threat," Tiglao said, adding that Sison had hinted he would call off peace talks with Manila over the joint exercises. Members of left-wing and progressive groups who have publicly criticized the joint exercises denied that Sison had ordered them to stir violence to dramatize their opposition. "This government is so desperate that it cannot descend from its ludicrous position and is now resorting to communist witch-hunting in order to quell the growing opposition to the presence o U.S. military forces," Renato Reyes Jr, spokesman for the left-leaning group Bayan (New Patriotic Alliance), told Reuters by telephone. Critics say it is highly unusual to conduct military training in areas where there is an active enemy force. They suggest it is a pretext to bring U.S. troops into the country in a combat role, which is prohibited by the constitution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
