Communist Guerilla Leaders Freed James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 20 August 2016 The two most senior jailed Filipino Maoist rebel leaders were released yesterday to join Monday's peace talks in Norway. Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army (CPP-NPA) chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife, secretary-general Wilma Tiamzon joined 20 other leaders freed as part of President Rodrigo Duterte's peace talks plan. The couple smiled and raised their fists as they were released on bail from a jail in Quezon City, where their supporters greeted them. Thanks to Duterte At a press conference, the Tiamzons thanked Mr Duterte for their release and for the resumption of negotiations that will tackle wide-raging reforms in an attempt to end the conflict. "These releases are goodwill measures that will create a positive environment for the progress of the peace talks," Mr Tiamzon said. Ms Tiamzon called on Filipino youth fight the "real monsters" of society instead of playing video game craze Pokemon Go. "Instead of 'Pokemon Go, what is better is Revolution Go," she said to laughter. The Tiamzons had been held on murder charges since their arrest on 22 March 2014 along with five other central committee members, a week before the 45th anniversary of the communist uprising. Extra mile for peace Left-wing umbrella group Bayan, which supports Mr Duterte, welcomed the leaders' pending release on Wednesday, while pointing out that they still faced trial on "trumped-up" charges and that more than 500 "political prisoners" remained. "They did not steal nor oppress the poor," Bayan said in a statement on its website. "They are not criminals in the mould of past Philippine presidents, or of the big criminal syndicates. They deserve to be released and allowed to continue their work in the peace talks." Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende will open the negotiations in Oslo on Monday, her office announced yesterday. The talks had stalled under Mr Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino over the government's rejection of CPP-NPA demands for prisoner releases. Mr Duterte's peace adviser Jesus Dureza said on Monday that while the president had been hurt by recent "sharp exchanges" with CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, his former university professor now living in the Netherlands, "he will walk the extra mile for peace." [email protected] From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6f8f-Communist-guerilla-leaders-freed-t o-take-part-in-peace-talks#.V7fkC_l9600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13990 (20160819) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d1faa7%24c528c180%244f7a4480%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
