Norway rules out resumption of talks

PEACE talks broker Norway said it saw no chance of a rapid resumption of the stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF).

“I don’t see the prospect of talks resuming in the near future,” Tore Hattrem, director general of the section of peace and reconciliation at the Norwegian foreign ministry, told AFP after four days of consultations with the NDF.

Top NDF officials flow to Oslo last week to coordinate with Norwegian foreign ministry officials its bid to resume formal peace talks with the Philippine government.

Hattrem said the discussions with the NDF were part of regular routine talks which Norway has held with both sides in the decades-old conflict, but declined to give any details of the encounter.

Norway has acted as peace broker between the government and the NDF, comprising the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its 7,400-member New People’s Army (NPA), since February 2004.

Malacañang, however, has ruled out the resumption of peace talks unless the communist rebels agreed to an immediate ceasefire nationwide.

But the NDF yesterday flatly rejected the government’s call for a ceasefire as a pre-condition to the peace talks.

All-out war

“The all-out war policy of the Arroyo regime and the gross human rights violations are obstacles to the resumption of the formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations,” said NDF panel chair Luis Jalandoni in a statement.

Jaladoni accused the government of deceiving 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.

“Those accountable for such violations of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees as listed below should be brought to justice before the resumption of formal talks,” he added.

The NDF cited the murder of former Bicol rebel leader Sotero Llamas, the assassination plans against Sison and leftist lawyer Romeo Capulong and the abductions of NDF regional consultants Edgardo Sacamay, Angelina Ipong, Eduardo Serrano, Rogelio Calubad with his son and Prudencio Calubid, together with his two companions.

Sen. Jamby Madrigal yesterday said the government should not set any precondition for the resumption of talks with the communist guerrillas.

Give and take

“When you talk, there should be give and take. There should be goodwill on both sides and a genuine desire for peace if peace negotiation is to succeed,” Madrigal said in a phone interview. “For peace negotiations to succeed, you need goodwill.”

The opposition senator, whose meeting with top NDF leaders in the Netherlands infuriated the Palace, stressed that both sides should be flexible. “If you set conditions, nothing will happen.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., however, offered another view: “Demanding ceasefire is a good tactical move. Hard to talk with bullets wheezing by. The sound of gunfire will drown out the voice of reason.”

The NDF’s peace overtures came after President Macapagal-Arroyo directed the military to crush the 37-year insurgency in two years. She also ordered the release of P1 billion to fund its “all-out” war.

The talks were suspended in August 2004 after the communist rebels demanded that the government ask the European Union and the United States to strike them off their lists of foreign terrorist organizations. With reports from AFP, Norman Bordadora