Editorial:
Prepare for the JMC�s implementation

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), which is tasked to oversee the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) has held its initial meeting.

The JMC�s formation and operationalization are beneficial to the people and the revolution especially in the face of mounting cases of fascist abuses attendant to the intensification of the �war against terrorism.� The JMC is mandated to receive and investigate complaints regarding violations of the CARHRIHL.

The CARHRIHL is an important supplement to existing standards of respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. It encompasses the entire range of human rights, from civil and political rights to economic, social and cultural rights. It is premised on the Filipino people�s historical and concrete experiences and on the obtaining human rights situation in the country.

The CARHRIHL stands contrary to the current conduct of the state�s counterrevolutionary war, which knows no law.

The CARHRIHL can help in terms of providing added guidance and reminders to the revolutionary forces on how to properly conduct themselves vis a vis the masses and the enemy. In observing the CARHRIHL, the Party and the NPA can better show that they are principled, disciplined and propeople revolutionary organizations. They can belie the �terrorist� label that US imperialism and the puppet regime have tagged on the Party and the NPA. More than this, they can bring to the fore the fascism, oppressiveness and abusiveness of the enemy�s armed forces.

Through our conduct of education and propaganda work among the people on the CARHRIHL, we arm them with additional knowledge on their rights and on what they must do in the face of enemy suppression and violations.

The AFP has expressed its strong objection to the CARHRIHL and cannot be expected to seriously propagate the agreement among its ranks and those of the PNP and CAFGU. But let us persist in propagating it among them, especially among junior officers and rank-and-file soldiers in order to encourage them to respect its provisions.

The JMC is a far better venue to receive complaints on military abuses compared to the Commission on Human Rights, which merely serves the GRP. Exposing cases before the JMC may deter excessive abuses and violations by the enemy.

We must teach the revolutionary forces, the mass base, our allies and the people about what specific measures to take to maximize the JMC.

We must establish and strengthen a broad machinery and a rapid system by which we could monitor, document, report and expose to the public, violations perpetrated by the AFP, PNP, CAFGU and other enemy forces.

Along with the information coursed through the machinery of legal organizations, the concerned Party committees and NPA commands must also closely monitor issues and cases raised on various levels. We must strengthen the system of reporting and monitoring clashes and military incidents from NPA units and localities to the provincial and regional up to the national level. It is the responsibility of leading regional committees to operationalize forthwith in their respective areas of concern a system by which they could swiftly link up with NDFP representatives in the JMC and other national organs.

Let us expand and invigorate mass actions and protests to expose, condemn and resist violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Through the JMC, the mass media, mass actions and other means, let us redouble our efforts to expose and condemn the biggest and most rabid fascist thugs.

With the JMC�s operationalization, we can expect the GRP to exert efforts to use it to slander the Party, NPA and the revolutionary movement. In collusion with various counterrevolutionaries, the GRP is sure to come up with fabricated cases of so-called terrorist actions and violations by the NPA against human rights and international humanitarian law.

They could, among others, manufacture issues on supposed political assassinations, extortion and the recruitment of minors by the NPA. We must immediately belie such charges. Such responsibility rests with the Party�s leading cadres.

Simultaneously, we must also sharply and very carefully weigh the political implications of every tactical offensive and military action.

On the whole, cadres, officers and Red fighters possess a high level of appreciation for political issues in the conduct of NPA military actions. Nonetheless, it is important to have stricter adherence to the standards set by the Party and the CARHRIHL and avoid weaknesses, immediately rectify any error on our part and strengthen our propaganda work. Party and NPA units must endeavor to explain and clarify matters not only before the mass base but to the general public.

In the final analysis, we can only benefit from the JMC by waging all-out resistance against the psyops schemes hatched by the US, Malaca�ang, the AFP and other counterrevolutionaries within and outside the JMC.

It is most important to wage tit-for-tat propaganda and respond to the enemy�s anti-terrorist slanders and strengthen political support to pave the way for the intensification of our armed struggle.

This is urgently demanded by the very grave crisis now facing the reactionary system and by our program for advancing the armed revolution to an even higher level.

21 April 2004
English Edition

	Editorial: Prepare for the JMC�s implementation
	A Red salute to Silvino �Ka Bino� Clamucha
	Correspondence Reports: AFP intrigues belied
	Correspondence Reports: The struggle for land goes on in Hacienda Luisita
	Development Overseas: A new stage in the Iraqi struggle
	Development Overseas: Sharon Plan, a treacherous ploy
	News: AFP takes Karapatan members hostage
	News: KAGUMA turns 33