Communist insurgents in the Philippines called off a truce with
the government on Wednesday, almost two weeks ahead of schedule, raising
concerns about the future of peace talks.
The
Communist Party of the Philippines blamed the government for their
action but a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino III said the CPP
just wanted an excuse to cut the ceasefire short.
A CPP statement said the truce, originally scheduled to run from
December 20 to January 15, had ended at noon Wednesday because it
believed the government only wanted a truce to remain in place until
then.
"The (New People's Army) and the people's
militias should immediately assume an offensive posture and confront and
frustrate the enemy campaigns of suppression," the statement said.
However Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the government would observe the ceasefire until January 15.
He said the rebels had found an extended ceasefire to be "detrimental"
to them so they chose to cut it short and blame the government.
"The CPP-NPA has always been making excuses... and now they're coming
up with other stumbling blocks to peace," Lacierda told reporters.
The government and the CPP agreed to the ceasefire in mid-December when
they held their first high-level peace talks for 13 months.
Southern Philippine military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza
said Wednesday the CPP had already violated the ceasefire.
He said communist gunmen descended on the outskirts of the southern
city of Davao on Monday and Tuesday, briefly holding two government
militiamen and three civilians to intimidate them.
The CPP pulled out of peace talks in November 2011 after the government
rejected rebel demands to free jailed comrades whom they claimed were
consultants to the negotiations.
The Maoist
rebels have been waging an armed rebellion to seize power since 1969 and
more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the
government.
The military estimates the current
NPA strength at about 4,000 fighters, significantly down from more than
26,000 at its peak in the late 1980s. — Agence France-Presse
0 comments:
Post a Comment