Philippine communist leader held in Netherlands

AMSTERDAM, Aug 28 (Reuters) Philippines communist leader Jose Maria Sison has been arrested in the Netherlands and charged with ordering the murders of two former political associates, Dutch prosecutors said today.

Sison has been living in the Netherlands since 1987 and prosecutors said he was suspected of issuing orders there for the murders in the Philippines of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara.

His home in Utrecht was searched, as were apartments belonging to his co-workers, prosecutors said in a statement.

A lawyer for the firm representing Sison said a colleague was on his way to visit Sison in prison in The Hague, but declined to comment on the allegations.

Sison is the founder of the Philippine Communist Party, whose military wing the New People's Army (NPA) is waging an armed rebellion across the archipelago that has cost more than 40,000 lives.

Kintanar was shot dead in a restaurant in 2003 and Tabara was killed with his son-in-law in a Quezon City car park the following year. Both died after breaking with the NPA.

Last month, the European Union's highest court annulled a decision by the bloc to put Sison, 68, on its terrorism list.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sees the NPA as the country's most serious security threat and last year declared all-out war on the rebels.

Peace talks between the two sides collapsed in 2004 when Washington and some European states put the NPA on their terrorism blacklists.

The Philippine military described Sison's arrest as ''a triumph of justice''.

''He is assured of his day in court,'' said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro.

Prosecutors said Sison would appear before a judge in The Hague on Friday.

REUTERS LPB BST2021