MRS. GLORIA ARROYO TREADS THE PATH OF DICTATOR MARCOS

National Democratic Front of the Philippines
National Executive Committee

Press Statement
7 December 2009


MRS. GLORIA ARROYO TREADS THE PATH OF DICTATOR MARCOS

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) vigorously condemns Mrs. Gloria Arroyo's declaration of martial law in Maguindanao. It is reminiscent of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus a year before declaring Martial Law in 1972.

Prominent law professors have denounced her declaration as a contemptuous violation of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines which requires an invasion or rebellion for such declaration. Moreover, the Supreme Court has exposed as false her claim that the judicial system in Maguindanao is not functioning.

She relies on her loyal followers in the House of Representatives to outvote the opposition in the Senate. Both houses of Congress have to approve by simple majority her declaration.

This testing of the waters by Ms. Gloria Arroyo in preparation for possible declaration of martial law in other areas or all over the country is one scheme she has for clinging to power. It is ominous that Major Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, AFP vice-chief of staff for operations, has just recommended that the martial law proclamation be extended to the May 2010 elections.

Mrs. Arroyo has also filed her candidacy for a congressional seat in her home province of Pampanga. This would pave the way for her to be elected Prime Minister once a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) would be convened to amend the Constitution.

The US and other foreign powers are pushing for amending the Constitution to allow 100% ownership of land by foreigners and other amendments advantageous to their interests. Mrs. Arroyo can therefore bank on their support for her Con-Ass move. As Prime Minister she would enjoy immunity from prosecution for her many crimes against the people.

Another scheme of Mrs. Arroyo is No-El or failure of elections together with the declaration of a “Transition Government” under her leadership. Widespread violence, instigated by her warlord cronies, like the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, may be used as the excuse for “Failure of Elections”. The scheme of “Transition Government” under Mrs. Arroyo has been pushed and publicized by her National Security Adviser, Norberto Gonzales, who is concurrently Secretary of Defense.

Mrs. Arroyo has also prepared for the coming elections by making sure that her favorite general, Delfin Bangit, formerly Presidential Security Guard (PSG) chief and head of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, will be the Chief of Staff of the AFP at the time of the elections in May 2010. Other favored generals are placed in strategically important positions.

Even the Maguindanao massacre may be considered suspect as a plot by Mrs. Arroyo and her crony warlord, Andal Ampatuan Sr., to lay the ground for the declaration of martial law. Up to now, Malacanang has not given any explanation why Andal Ampatuan, Sr., the governor of Maguindanao and his son, Zaldy, governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were in Malacanang just prior to and during the Massacre in Maguindanao, for allegedy “an emergency meeting”. It is widely known that Andal Ampatuan Sr. used.force and fraud in Maguindanao to provide Mrs. Arroyo a wide margin of more than 130,000 votes in the 2004 elections. In the entire ARMM, Arroyo won by a margin close to 300,000.

In the 2007 elections, Andal Ampatuan, Sr. ensured a 12-0 sweep for the Administration senatorial candidates. On the contrary, 19 opposition candidates, including the 12 in the “Genuine Opposition” did not get a single vote in 20 out of 22 municipalities in Maguindanao. Soon after her “victory” in the 2004 elections, Mrs. Arroyo threw a big party in Malacanang for Andal Ampatuan, Sr.

It is no wonder that officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been identified as among the leaders of the massacre. Units of the PNP and AFP have been part of the private army of the Ampatuan clan, and many of its weapons were provided by the AFP and PNP.

Mrs. Arroyo and her regime must be condemned and held accountable for the impunity she gives to Ampatuan and her other favored warlords to whom she is deeply indebted for giving her hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes. She must also be held accountable for the massacre in Maguindanao and many other gross violations of human rights because of her schemes to prolong herself in power.
.
Luis G. Jalandoni
Member, NDFP National Executive Committee

"Remember, remember, the 6th of December."Riots and Repression - Athens December 6th 2009

Riot policemen beat a protester during clashes on the first anniversary of the killing of a teenager by police in central Athens, Greece, 06 December 2009. Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators across Greece as marchers commemorated the first anniversary of the shooting death of a teenager by police, an incident that sparked the worst riots the country had seen in decades

At Syntagma square motorised police forces (Delta team) charged the march from Ermou street. After the charge the Delta-team thugs dismounted and threw rocks at the protesters. As a cause of the police orgy in violence, an elderly member of the Worker’s Revolutionary Party-Trotskyist (EEK) has been reported to be in serious condition due to head injuries: Ms Koutsoumbou, a veteran prisoner of the anti-dictatorship struggle, was hit by a Delta force motorbike during the mounted charge on the crowd. According to Savas Michail, leading member of EEK and major radical philosopher, Ms Koutsoumbou is in intensive care having received far worse hits than during her tortures by the colonels' junta. One more man has been hospitalised with serious injuries.





Riots have broken out in Athens and Salonica during the first day of A. Grigoropoulos murder anniversary with police demonstrating extreme brutality leaving two people seriously wounded by a motorised charge on the Athens march.

Police brutality during the marches to comemmorate the first anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murder surpassed any limit today, in a coordinated operation of barbarity and crude violence against protesters across greece. Under socialist orders police violence has left dozens of people wounded.

General strike in Nepal over Maoists' deaths

(AFP) KATHMANDU — Nepal's opposition Maoists on Sunday called a nationwide general strike to protest against the deaths of party activists in a clash with police, further raising tensions in the Himalayan nation.

Demonstrators burned tyres on the streets of the capital Kathmandu and set fire to cars and motorbikes, while shops and offices remained shut on Sunday -- usually a working day in Nepal.

The Maoists' action was sparked by the deaths of at least four party supporters in a clash Friday with armed police in the west of the country, where landless people had occupied a large area of government-owned land.

"We will strictly enforce a nationwide strike to protest the brutal force used by police against the squatters," Ganeshman Pun, head of the Maoists' youth wing the Young Communist League, told AFP.

"The government must investigate the deaths of these people, who should be declared martyrs."

Riot police were deployed across the country to prevent outbreaks of violence and police said the protest had so far been largely peaceful.

"The Maoists are blocking the roads and shouting anti-government slogans. All shops and schools have remained shut," said police official Raj Kumar Adhikari.

The Maoists waged a bloody decade-long war against the state before winning elections last year, but their government fell in May after the president overruled their decision to sack the head of the army.

Since then they have held regular protests, preventing parliament from sitting and paralysing the capital.

The latest strike comes amid growing international concern about the slow progress of the peace process in the desperately poor country, where many people have seen little improvement in their lives since the war ended in 2006.

On Saturday, the United States' most senior representative in Nepal expressed "deep concerns about the ongoing political stalemate" and said recent Maoist actions were inconsistent with the party's stated commitment to peace.

Maoists Rally for Nationwide Strike in Nepal

Thousands of Maoists held a torch procession tonight in preparation for a nationwide Banda (closure) tomorrow. The action was called in retaliation of an incident in Kailali district on Friday. Police had used deadly force in removing thousands of Maoist aligned landless squatters from forest land. Nepal, Kathmandu

Prachanda compares Kailali incident with Panchayat suppression; 'Nepal bandh'on Sunday

Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda has likened Friday's Kailali incident with political suppression during the partyless Panchayat era.

Addressing a function at Trichandra Campus in Kathmandu Saturday, Dahal said the government was inviting political confrontation and bloodshed in the country by resorting to brutal suppression on landless squatters. He also demanded fair investigation into the incident to bring the culprits to justice.

The Maoist chairman further said some parties were in a mission to dissolve the constituent assembly on fear that new constitution of Nepal would be pro-communist. He also accused other parties of deliberately delaying the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.

During the clash between police personnel and thousands of landless squatters in Dudejhadi jungle, Kailali, at least seven people were killed and dozens injured. Police said they were forced to open fire as the squatters, who had constructed huts in the jungle, refused to follow the evacuation orders.

Meanwhile, the Unified CPN (Maoist) has announced nationwide general strike (bandh) on Sunday in protest against the police action in Kailali.

Issuing a statement, the United People's Movement Nepal of the Maoist party called upon all to join the protest. The party is to organise torch processions Saturday evening and nationwide bandh tomorrow

Nepal-India security meeting begins

KATHMANDU, Dec 4: The three-day bilateral consultative meeting between Nepal and India on security began at the Nepal Army Headquarters, Kathmandu on Friday.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arun Dhital is heading the Nepali side while his India counterpart Satish Mehta represented the Indian side.

Officials from the Ministry of Defense, Home, Foreign Affairs, and representatives of all security agencies, including Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Intelligence Department, will participate in this meeting.

During the meeting, both the sides discussed issues on resumption of supply of non-lethal military hardware to the Nepal Army, training and the building of the airstrip in Surkhet, according to a knowledgeable source.

India had agreed to help build an airbase in Surkhet during Defense Minister Bidya Bhandari´s visit to India.

On Monday the 23rd November India flew its supersonic fighter jets over Nepali territory. According to eyewitness accounts, the Indian fighter planes were spotted over Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Darchula. These areas are strongholds of the UCPN (Maoist). It has also been reported that India sent its planes into Nepal on the 21st of this month as well.

The current Nepali government has expressed its ignorance of this event. Local intelligence sources, however, also claim that Indian jets were spotted over Nepal. Civilians feel very threatened by the presence of the Indian military in the sky.

The UCPN (Maoist) has accused the current UML-run government of being puppets for the Indian expansionists and the United States. The government's ignorance of these violations of Nepali territorial integrity is proof that the accusations made by the UCPN against the UML government (and other coalition parties) are correct.

Chhattisgarh and Maharastra First Targets of Operation Green Hunt

India's CRPF, one of world's largest paramilitary forces
Yahoo! News India, November 28, 2009

Anti-Maoist operations to begin from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh

New Delhi (IANS)- Central paramilitary forces have taken up positions to begin the offensive against Maoist guerrillas in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in the first half of December, senior officers here say.

The schedule has been worked out, forces have been deployed and, if everything goes well, the first phase of the operations could take off as early as next fortnight.

‘The battalions of the Border Security Force (BSF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had already taken their positions in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, from where we would first start the operations,’ a senior officer dealing with anti-Maoist operations told IANS on condition of strict anonymity. The BSF, ITBP and CRPF would be jointly operating in Chhattisgarh, he added.Four battalions from the ITBP and at least two from BSF have moved to Chhattisgarh. Each battalion comprises 700 personnel. The CRPF is present in large numbers in Chhattisgarh, the most affected by Maoist violence.

‘In Maharashtra the onus of taking on the Maoists largely lies on the shoulders of the CRPF. The force has moved additional three battalions in the state,’ the officer added.

The CRPF, one the world’s largest paramilitary forces, has 207 battalions.

Another senior officer, who was not authorised to speak to media, said: ‘The operations will be jointly launched in synergy in both the states. It will be coordinated and additional forces would be rushed as per the requirement.’

Asked about the launch of offensive operations, the officer said: ‘It will not be launched nationwide. In first half of December we would be covering Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.’

‘After the setting up of a government in Jharkhand, which is presently undergoing elections, we will take up operations there,’ he said, adding that no timeline had been set for commencing operations in the state.

And, once the election process is complete in Jharkhand, the BSF and CRPF battalions which are presently posted there will undergo specific training related to anti-Maoist operations and will be deployed in Orissa.

‘Once they are trained, we would be deploying them in Orissa for the offensive against the Maoists. All the operations would be in phases and one after the other. The plan is to capture and control Maoist controlled areas in the affected states one by one,’ the official added.

Senior officials confided to IANS that it will not be before March when the security forces will launch their operations in all the Maoist-affected states.

According to rough estimations, over 60,000 security personnel from the central paramilitary forces would be in acction against 6,000-7,000 armed Maoist cadres. Officials say the Maoists are armed with heavy as well sophisticated weapons like light machine guns, AK-47s, AK-56s and Insas rifles.

Condemn the arrest of the 34 members of the Basque Youth Movement in Spain - Repression in Europe continues

Dear Comrades and Friends,

The Communist Organization of Greece (KOE) fully supports the manifest attached here, condemning the new antidemocratic repressive acts of the Spanish government against the Basque Patriotic Left, and concretely the arrest of 34 members of the Basque youth movement.

We call upon all the progressive forces around the world to respond immediately to the urgent appeal of the Basque youth, to sign the attached manifest, and join forces in the struggle for the immediate liberation of the 34 arrested.

Moreover, just a few weeks ago, the Spanish "justice" proceeded (again!) in the arrest of Arnaldo Otegi and 4 more leaders of the Patriotic Left. This mockery of "European democracy" has to be revealed all over the world! We forward this appeal to all our international contacts, asking to demonstrate their solidarity.

Freedom for the 34 Basque youth and all the Basque political prisoners!
Condemn the repression - Support the democratic process advanced by the Basque Patriotic Left!

*****
Communist Organization of Greece / Kommounistiki Organosi Elladas (KOE)
International Relations Department

Email: laokratia@yahoo.com * aristera@tellas.com
Web: www.koel.gr * In English: international.koel.gr

Post address: Newspaper "Left!" * Isaia Salonon 6 * 11475 Athens, Greece
Phone: +30 210 6441745 * Fax: +30 210 6430024
*****



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: iñaki garcia garcia
Sent: Wed, December 2, 2009 12:52:12 PM
Subject: FW: URGENTE URGENT CALL FOR SOLIDARITY 34 PEOPLE ARRESTED, we have two days!!!!

Hola a todos hi comrades

Este correo es para mandaros el manifiesto que sera presentado este viernes en denuncia al ataque contra la juventud vasca que se saldo con 34 detenidos la semana pasada. Os pedimos que antes de pasado mañana nos mandeis la adhesion y nos ayudeis moviendo este manifiesto entre vuestros contactos. Sentimos las prisas pero las condiciones de trabajo ahora mismo son malas por aqui.

This mail is just to asko for your solidarity related to the arrest of 34 members of the youth movement last week. This friday we are going to present this manifest attached and we need asap as much signatures as we can have in two days. We need your help, and sorry cause of sending that with only two days but the situation is not good to work here now.

Thansk and gracias a todos to all and AURRERA BOLIE!!!!

Youth and independentist: not a crime/ Joven e independetista: un crimen?

Around the police/juridical attack, 34 people arrested, against the Basque youth movement, the different youth movements below want to declare:

Los movimientos abajo firmantes, ante la detencion de 34 miembros del movimiento juvenil vasco, nos reunimos y declaramos:

We do not consider this attack as an aggression against one concrete organization. Between the arrested people there were representatives of the feminist movement, squatter movement, the movement for another housing policy…at least the representatives of a diverse and alive movement which aim is building an alternative social and national project for the Basque country.

No consideramos este ataque represivo un accion en contra de una organizacion concreta. Entre los arrestados se encuentras representates del movimiento feminista, activistas por el derecho a una vivienda, miembros de las diferentes gazte asanbladas y gaztetxes, acivistas politicos…los detenidos representan un movimiento juvenil que en su dinamismo y diversidad se organiza para ofrecer a este pueblo una alternativa basada en el cambio social y politico.

The civil and political rights are again not respected by the Spanish state. We demand respect, for all different projects that reflex the diversity of our country, including the right to defend an independetist and socialist alternative for the Basque country.

Los derechos civiles y politicos de los jovenes vascos han vuelto a ser crudamente conculcados. Exigimos respeto para todos los proyectos que reflejan la diversidad de nuestro pueblo, incluido aquellos que apostamos por una Euskal Herria independiente y socialista.

We demand to stop all this continuous attacks against the Basque youth and the guarantees to develop our political compromise without repression and with respect to our civil and political rights.

Exigimos que paren estos continuos ataques contra la juventud vasca asi como que se cumplan las garantias para poder desarrollar nuestro compromise politico sin perjuicio de nuestros derechos civiles y politicos.

The signatories of this manifest call a press conference next Friday and a demonstration next Saturday to show collectively that we refuse this attack, show our solidarity to the arrested people and ask for their liberation.

Los abajo firmantes llamamos a su vez una rueda de prensa y una manifestacion con el objetivo de mostrar nuestro rechazo colectivo ante este nuevo ataque represivo, mostramos nuestra solidaridad a los detenidos y exigimos su inmediata liberacion

Maoists spearhead forest seizure in western Nepal

Kathmandu, Dec 1 (PTI) Thousands of landless people led by Maoists' affiliated groups have occupied land and a state-owned forest in western Nepal's Kailali district.

In the last five days, around 10,000 people led by UCPN (Maoist)-aligned organisations representing the landless have thronged Dudejhari forest of Baliya village development committee in Kailali district for capturing public land and forest, according to officials.

The Maoists have assured these squatters that they would be provided free land in Kailali district.

Some 10 kilometres forest land has already been occupied by the Maoists. The squatteres have set up hundreds of huts and temporary shelters to capture the forest area, The Kathmandu Post quoted officials as saying.

They have also warned to retaliate if any one tries to evict them. Hundreds of people including women and children have formed human barricade encircling the encroached area with the aim of retaliation in case of their removal.

Green cover rises in Red Zone