Nepal's Maoists inspire Philippine comrades

Reuters ^ | 29 Apr 2006 | Carmel Crimmins

[Tailgunner Joe]

SOUTHERN LUZON, Philippines, April 29 (Reuters) - From his coconut leaf hut deep in the forest, Gregorio Rosal, one of the Philippine's most-wanted men, smiles in admiration at the recent success of Nepal's Maoist rebels.

"Their advance has been inspiring," the chief spokesman for the communist insurgent New People's Army (NPA) told Reuters. "The protracted people's war that Mao practiced in China."

Nepal's rebels loosely aligned themselves with mainstream political parties and forced the autocratic king to cede power this week.

The NPA, waging the world's longest-communist insurgency, wants a similar tie-up with disgruntled soldiers and political opposition groups to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

"We call that 'united front tactics', that is also what we are trying to do," said Rosal, alias Ka Roger, in his first face-to-face interview with foreign media since the 1980s.

Arroyo has accused the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, of colluding with her political foes and renegade soldiers in an alleged bid to oust her in February.

The Philippines says the communists are its top security threat, ahead of Muslim rebels in southern Mindanao island.

Rosal, who was one of 49 people charged with rebellion for the alleged coup, denies there was a plot or that an alliance exists between the NPA and disillusioned members of the army, the sworn enemy of the communists.

ERSTWHILE FOES

But the NPA is ready to align itself with erstwhile foes if it means Arroyo could be overthrown and replaced by a government which includes left-wing groups.

Rosal, his M16 rifle within arm's reach in his hideout in the northern island of Luzon, said a more left-wing government could lead to the revival of peace talks.

Previous discussions with Arroyo's administration, brokered by Norway, stalled in August 2004 when Manila refused to help persuade Washington and some European states to remove the NPA from terror blacklists.

Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and Red China's embrace of free-wheeling capitalism, the NPA continues to wage an insurgency started in 1969 as successive governments have failed to deal with social inequalities and widespread poverty.

Fighting between rebels and government forces has killed more than 40,000 people and stunted economic development but Rosal, who has to keep on the move to avoid capture and has not seen his wife in almost two years, still has fire in his belly.

"The future is very good," said the 58 year old, unperturbed by China's conversion to capitalism and adamant that the NPA's own ideological commitment is steadfast.

Capitalising on coup fears in Manila, the rebels have increased attacks on remote police stations and businesses since the start of the year.

Rosal, who keeps up-to-date on world affairs via a radio strapped to his waist, puts the organisation's membership at around 8,000 and dismissed government claims that the NPA has lost 900 fighters since the start of the year.

[daviddennis]

P J O'Rourke, in his 1980s classic 'Holidays in Hell', characterized the NPA as hopelessly inept. Basically, he portrayed them as a ragtag group of criminals who would have faced prosecution if they attempted to return to civilian life.

They have been pretty much overshadowed by the Al Queda-backed Muslim group.

It's pretty pathetic for a insurgent group to have only 9000 members in a country of over 80 million, and I suspect even the 9000 is a highly exaggerated figure.

They've certainly lasted a long time, but they don't seem to have accomplished much other than that.

Incidentally, the guy may not be so unhappy about his wife. Let us just say that the country has a huge surplus of cute young women and leave it at that.

D

[piasa]

From another article:

As they might have expected, they discovered several calls to and from Abu Sayyaf leaders. But another call got their attention. Seventeen hours after the attack that took the life of SFC Jackson, the cell phone was used to place a call to the second secretary of the Iraqi embassy in Manila, Hisham Hussein. It was not Hussein's only contact with Abu Sayyaf.
"He was surveilled, and we found out he was in contact with Abu Sayyaf and also pro-Iraqi demonstrators," says a Philippine government source, who continued, "[Philippine intelligence] was able to monitor their cell phone calls. [Abu Sayyaf leaders] called him right after the bombing. They were always talking."
An analysis of Iraqi embassy phone records by Philippine authorities showed that Hussein had been in regular contact with Abu Sayyaf leaders both before and after the attack that killed SFC Jackson. Andrea Domingo, immigration commissioner for the Philippines, said Hussein ran an "established network" of terrorists in the country. [Hisham] Hussein had also met with members of the New People's Army, a Communist opposition group on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, in his office at the embassy. According to a Philippine government official, the Philippine National Police uncovered documents in a New People's Army compound that indicate the Iraqi embassy had provided funding for the group. Hisham Hussein and two other Iraqi embassy employees were ordered out of the Philippines on February 14, 2003.
------- "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection," by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard, 03/18/2006

NPA: Gloria will pay if hostage dies Manila Times ^ | July 11, 2004 | Karl B. Kaufman