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".