CPP rejects Duterte ultimatum on landmines, orders forces to expand use of command-detonated devices

From InterAksyon (Aug 9): CPP rejects Duterte ultimatum on landmines, orders forces to expand use of command-detonated devices

Communist rebels not only trashed President Rodrigo Duterte’s ultimatum to stop using command-detonated landmines, they have ordered the increased use of the weapons in operations against government security forces.

Duterte warned the rebels on Sunday he might call off peace negotiations scheduled to resume formally on August 20 if they continue the use of the explosive devices, also known as CDX mines, which he claimed violate the Geneva Conventions.

Earlier, he also took back the unilateral ceasefire he declared during his first state of the nation address after the rebels failed to meet a deadline he set for them to reciprocate the gesture.

Responding to Duterte’s latest threat, the Communist Party of the Philippines said it “rejects the new ultimatum” calling it a “poorly-crafted deflectionary tactic, with the aim of blaming the revolutionary forces of the repeated postponement of peace talks,” even as government has yet to release political prisoners, including consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the CPP said its forces “ever ready to work with the Duterte regime to actively pursue talks to resolve the roots of the armed conflict through negotiations” even as it stressed it “is not one to back down from threats of war by Duterte.”

In a separate statement, the CPP called on the New People’s Army to “further expand use” of CDX explosives “in launching tactical offensives against the reactionary armed forces, police and all its attached paramilitaries,” maintaining the mines “are legitimate weapons of war and are allowed under the Geneva Conventions and the Ottawa Treaty on Landmines."

The CPP said Duterte “is showing himself to be more and more cantankerous, inventing one reason after another to attack the CPP and NPA instead of finding ways to push forward peace negotiations,” and hinting that his “bellicose” statements are meant to “satisfy the base humor” of the military.

It explained that what the Ottawa Treaty bans are contact-detonated anti-personnel mines triggered by "the presence, proximity or contact of a person."

"Contrary to Duterte's demand for the NPA to stop using its CDX landmines, the NPA and the people's militias must further expand the use of such weapons," it said.

It called CDX mines “a poor man’s weapon” that are “mass-produced by people who have no recourse to the expensive rockets and howitzers of state-funded armies” and are “effectively used by those who have mastery of terrain.”

“The mass movement to manufacture CDX landmines must be stepped-up,” the CPP said. “Every unit of the NPA, including all units of the people's militias, must have their own supply of CDX landmines, and must have the skill and plan to employ these as defensive and offensive weapons against the enemy."

At the same time, it dared the Armed Forces of the Philippines to make good on its threat to file charges against the rebels “for violating international conventions over the use of CDX landmines.”

http://interaksyon.com/article/131247/cpp-rejects-duterte-ultimatum-on-landmines-orders-forces-to-expand-use-of-command-detonated-devices