[asia-apec 177] Urgent: Ramos-Horta Campaign

[Philippine Peasant Institute]

Dear Friends:

     As you know, the Philippine Government has issued a directive saying
that it will ban people who are suspected of being “disruptive” to the APEC
Summit from the Philippines in the next few weeks.  Though he was not
mentioned by name, Jose Ramos Horta, the Noble Prize Winner who has been
invited to keynote the Manila People’s Forum, is the target of the directive.

     The response of the MPFA is that since Horta was not named and since he
is a man of peace, he does not fall under the government ban and our
operarting assumption is that he will be here to keynote the conference on
Nov. 21.  Jose is publicly holding the same line, saying he expects to be in
the Philippines from Nov. 19-24.

     The reality is that unless there is countepressure from our side, the
Ramos government, under pressure from Suharto, will in fact explicitly
prevent Horta from coming.  To make sure Horta can come in, we propose a
massive international campaign to press the Philippine government to admit
Horta.  We propose several prongs of such a campaign:

      One, organizations and individuals in your respective countries should
press the head of state to refrain from attending the APEC summit should the
Philippines ban Horta. Please try to get meetings with your head of state to
press the issue and get the press to cover these meetings.

     Two, key national organizations must be encouraged to send letters and
faxes  both to President Ramos in the Philippines and the country’s head to
state.  Your should ask for copies of these letters, fax them to us, so we
can release it to the press here in the Philippines.  Letters or faxes to
President Ramos should be addressed to the following:

			Office of the President
			Malacañang Palace Compound
			JP Laurel Street, San Miguel, Metro Manila
			1005 Philippines
			Tel. No. +632  521-2301 to 10    

		     or at	Department of Foreign Affairs
			2330 Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, Metro Manila
			Philippines
			Tel. No. +632  834-400 
			Fax. No. +632  832-1597 or +632  832-3307


     Three, members of Parliament or Congress should be encouraged to write
public letters urging the head of state to refrain from coming if Horta is
banned. These letters should be sent to us.

     Four, mini-demonstrations at the Philippine Embassy or consulate in
your country can be staged, with photos made of the participants meeting
with the ambassador and handing over a letter requesting entry for Horta.

     Five, petititions can be circulated, especially among notables, and the
list of signatories should be sent to us.

     We are now holding press conferences on this issue every two or three
days, and we plan to stretch this campaign until the Forum takes place. So
we need information from you on any key developments on your end that we can
feed the press.

     This can be a terribly resonant campaign, and we can win this one if we
work at it.