RP rebels declare Christmas truce

RP rebels declare Christmas truce

PHILIPPINES: Philippines communist guerrillas on Tuesday declared a unilateral 10-day Christmas cease-fire, while offering a longer-term truce and tactical alliance with President Gloria Arroyo.

The rebel truce declaration, in force between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, reciprocates a three-week unilateral cease-fire ordered by Arroyo on Thursday.

The 8,000-member Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its New People's Army (NPA) have been waging a Maoist campaign for more than three decades that has claimed thousands of lives.

The communists called off talks with the government in August, accusing Manila of not doing enough to persuade the United States and other Western governments to remove them from these governments' lists of foreign terrorist organizations.

The party "declared a unilateral cease-fire for the Christmas season and to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the CPP on Dec. 26, its central committee said in a statement.

It said all NPA units "will continue to bear arms and remain alert and ready to fight and defeat any attacks and harassment by regular and paramilitary forces" of the military and police. --AFP