Defend Filipino left from EU/US repression
Urgent request from Europe

from Dr Rita Vanobberghen
Medicine for the People, Brussels

Last August 9, US President Bush added the Communist Party of the 
Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA) to the list of terrorist 
organisations. The US has requested the European Union to do the same and 
enact repressive measures against progressive Filipinos and their 
supporters in Europe.

I propose that together, through an E-mail campaign, we demand from the 
Council of Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union not to push 
through with said measures.

I have been a doctor in the squatter areas of Manila for some eight years.

At present, as a doctor in Brussels with Medicine for the People, I daily 
have Filipino patients. They have a job as nanny or maid, as cook or 
driver, they are often undocumented and deprived of rights.

A big chunk of their meagre earnings is sent to their family in the 
Philippines.

For the majority there, poverty, exploitation and injustice is daily fare. 
But there is also a growing people's movement, fighting for "another 
world".

In the Philippines I had several friends who belonged to that movement.

Individuals who gave their utmost in the people's struggle for national 
liberation and democracy, even to the extent of putting their lives at 
stake.

Bush now wants to make us believe that those are all terrorists.

This is sheer hypocrisy. The US is the real terrorist. I know what I am 
talking about.

In 1985, as a doctor active in a guerilla area in El Salvador, I had been 
seriously wounded after a helicopter attack of the Salvadoran Army. That 
was trained, armed and commanded by the US.

And who bombed and strafed a marriage banquet in Afghanistan?

Who announces without blinking the next war against Iraq?

Who supports and finances Israel's terror against the Palestinians?

Together we can prevent that the CPP and NPA land on the list of "terrorist 
organisations" of the European Union.

Mail to Mrs Lene Espersen

(jm@jm.dk) and Mr Bertel Haarder

(info@inm.dk), the Danish Ministers who preside the Council of Justice and 
Home Affairs of the European Union.

May I ask you to forward me a copy

(ritaphilippines@gvhv.be) so that I can better keep track of our common 
campaign.

In solidarity, accept my thanks.