|
Press Release
30 August 2007
Unprecedented turnout in protest picket to commemorate
the
disappeared and show solidarity for Jose Maria Sison
(Amsterdam, The Netherlands) About 100 people turned out in this capital
city of the Netherlands today, to attend a commemoration for the victims
of forcible abductions in the Philippines and a protest picket to call for
the immediate release of Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, who was arrested on
trumped-up charges last Tuesday, Aug. 28 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Professor Sison is currently detained at the National Penitentiary in
Scheveningen in The Hague.
The commemoration/protest picket was a virtual reunion of solidarity
activists in the Netherlands who came en masse, after learning of
Professor Sison’s arrest and the ransacking of several houses of Filipinos
in Utrecht. An organizer of the picket said the turnout was a
‘muscle-flexing’ for the solidarity activists as they gear for the bigger
battle to free Professor Sison.
Among those who attended were representatives of the Dutch-section of the
International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), Dutch-Philippine
Solidarity Movement (NFS), the Dutch political party NCPN, Rode Morgen,
International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD), the International
Committee Defend, Solidarity Indonesia, Solidarity Bangladesh and
SolidarityTurkey, and many Filipinos living in Amsterdam.
ABS-CBN Europe, the Associated Press-Netherlands, and some local
newspapers covered the protest picket.
Alongside posters and photos of some of the victims of disappearances,
among them, Jonas Burgos, are the posters and placards calling for the
immediate and unconditional release of Professor Sison. Written on some
placards were: “Sison is a revolutionary, not a terrorist”, and “The
killers are in Malacanang, not in the Netherlands! Stop political
killings!”
In a short message to the protesters, Theo Droog of the NFS said, before
2001, the peace talks between the Manila government and the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines were proceeding, and that Professor
Sison played an important role in the progress of the talks. But when
Gloria Arroyo grabbed power, Droog said, and the Bush government launched
its so-called war on terror, the peace talks were undermined, and the
political persecution of Professor Sison intensified.
In a beautifully crafted statement in Dutch, the NFS said: “[The Sison
case] is not about grief over the death of two persons. It has very little
to do with human rights and respect for life. The fingers that point at
Sison drips with blood. The fingers of Arroyo drip with the blood of more
than a thousand people who were assassinated, because they don’t agree
with a corrupt, anti-poor and wretched regime.”
Professor Sison is scheduled to be indicted tomorrow in a closed-door
session, August 31, at the Rechtbank Den Haag in The Hague, at 1 pm
(Central European Time). The International Committee Defend is expecting a
bigger mobilization tomorrow at venue of the indictment.
The commemoration/protest today was organized by the Rice and Rights – an
alliance of organizations defending human rights, and is composed of Dutch
solidarity activists and patriotic organizations of Filipinos in the
Netherlands.###
For reference:
International Committee DEFEND
Email: defenddemrights@yahoo.com
Dr. Jun Saturay
Mobile: +31-6-22127186
|
 |
