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Southeast Asia
Philippines arrests lawmaker outside Supreme Court
2007-03-16
MANILA – Philippine police arrested a leftwing lawmaker on the steps of the Supreme Court on Friday for mass murder dating back to the 1980s. Satur Ocampo, a two-term member of the lower house of Congress, went to the Supreme Court to seek a restraining order against the arrest warrant, issued last week for the murder of 69 communist rebels suspected of betraying the Maoist New People's Army (NPA) in the 1980s.

Ocampo, who was taken to a local police station, told Reuters the charges were an attempt by the government to exclude leftwing groups from mainstream politics and prevent them from seeking re-election in congressional elections on May 14. 'These charges of murder are political harassment and repression and are an attempt to prohibit me from campaigning,' said the former journalist, who has said he was in prison when the NPA started killing suspected government spies.

Ocampo was forced to go underground with the communist rebels when late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Captured in 1976, he was tried in a military court and detained until 1985 when he escaped and rejoined the guerrillas. Re-arrested two years later, Ocampo was freed in 1992 when the government opened peace talks with the communists. He won a seat in Congress in 2001 as a member of the Bayan Muna (Nation First) party-list group.

The government views Bayan Muna and other leftwing groups as NPA fronts and has accused Ocampo and other lawmakers of helping to fund one of the world's longest-running communist insurgencies, which has killed more than 40,000 people since 1969. Leftwing groups deny the allegations and accuse the military of killing hundreds of their members in extrajudicial executions. The armed forces blame the murders on internal purges in the communist movement.

Ineffectual President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sees the NPA as the Philippines' biggest security threat. Last year she declared all-out war on the rebels, who are largely based in rural areas and engage the police and military in deadly tit-for-tat battles.
All the while trying to hand part of her country over to the Moro Islamists. Go figure
Peace talks collapsed in 2004 when Washington and some European states put the NPA on terrorism blacklists. The group has more than 7,000 fighters and is active in 69 of 81 provinces.
Posted by:Steve

#1  Odds are GMA will eventually blame 'US pressure' for the arrest.
Posted by: Pappy   2007-03-16 21:14  

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