New Zealand tags CPP, NPA terror groups

ZAMBOANGA CITY: New Zealand has blacklisted the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), adding the two organizations to its list of international terrorist groups.

The CPP and NPA were among six other international terrorist groups—Indian Mujahideen, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the military wing of Hamas (Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades), the Real Irish Republican Army, the Continuity Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah’s military wing (the Islamic Resistance)—that had been designated under New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act.

Prime Minister John Key said that the designations help implement New Zealand’s international obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, which aims to prevent activities of terrorists.

He added all eight entities had carried out terrorist acts, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

“As a result of the designations, any assets held by the groups and found in New Zealand, either now or in future, will be frozen, and it will be a criminal offense to deal with property, or make property or financial services available, to the entities,” Key said.

Under New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act, other forms of support such as fund-raising and recruiting or harboring terrorists are a criminal offense, regardless of whether a group is designated as a terrorist entity.

Key said that the designations were part of the New Zealand’s backing for the building of international defense against terrorist activities.

New Zealand now lists nearly 500 groups and individuals as terrorists.

The CPP and the NPA are fighting for decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the Philippines.

Manila has repeatedly accused the two organizations of terrorism and murdering innocent civilians suspected of spying for the government or those who refused to join the rebel groups in the provinces.

There were no immediate statements from either the CPP or the NPA, or the Philippine military, about the designations, but the rebels were expected to condemn the terror tag, which came as the government proposed to resume peace talks with communist leaders.

The peace talks between Manila and the rebels collapsed in 2004 after the CPP-NPA accused then President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several agreements, among them the release of all political prisoners in the country and for the government to put a stop to extrajudicial killings victimizing political activists.

The communist insurgency in the Philippines, the longest in the world, had killed thousands of people during the last four decades.

The United States and the European Union previously also tagged the CPP and the NPA as international terrorist organizations. –Al Jacinto, Correspondent, Manila Times