RP told to stop blocking asylum bid

RP told to stop blocking asylum bid

MANILA (DPA): A Philippine human rights group demanded yesterday the administration of President Fidel Ramos stop torpedoing an asylum bid by an exiled communist leader to save fragile peace talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running leftist insurgencies.

Karapatan, or the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights, said the government could prove its sincerity in the peace talks by supporting the asylum application of Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, in the Netherlands.

"The Dutch justice ministry's poor view of Sison as not a legitimate political refugee can only be the handiwork of rabid anti- communists," said Antonio Liongson, Karapatan deputy secretary general. "The government should stop sabotaging Sison's asylum bid."

Liongson charged intelligence agencies of both the Philippines and the United States "have been secretly feeding specious dossiers to both the Dutch intelligence agency and justice ministry".