Dutch Arrest Philippine Communist Leader

By MIKE CORDER

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A Philippine communist leader accused of commanding a rebel uprising from exile for more than 20 years was arrested by Dutch police Tuesday on suspicion of ordering the murder of two former allies in his home country, prosecutors said.

Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, was picked up in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, authorities said.

He was accused of ordering the killings in 2003 and 2004 of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, who were gunned down in the Philippines on Sison’s command, said a statement the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Spokesman Wim de Bruin said Sison, 68, will be put on trial in the Netherlands, not the Philippines.

"There is no extradition request," De Bruin said. "These are crimes that were committed in the Netherlands. Ordering murders is a crime according to Dutch law."

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo hailed the arrest as "a giant step toward peace. A victory for justice and the rule of law."

Kintanar was shot in a Japanese restaurant in a Manila suburb on Jan. 23, 2003. Tabara was killed, along with his son-in-law, in a parking lot as they got out of their car on Sept. 26, 2004, the statement said.

The Philippines Communist Party’s armed wing claimed responsibility for the slayings, both of which happened in suburban Quezon city.

Kintanar was commander of the New People’s Army when it created a special unit that assassinated U.S. Army Col. James Nicolas Rowe of the Joint US Military Assistance Group in Quezon city in 1989. He later fell out with the communist leadership. The NPA said it killed Kintanar for various crimes against the people.

The communist rebels said Tabara pulled a gun on a group of rebels as they tried to "arrest" him for so-called counterrevolutionary activities.

In Utrecht, about 30 policemen raided Sison’s office, seizing computers, CDs, documents and books, said Aldo Gonzalez, who said he was questioned during the six-hour police operation at the office.

Sison has denied any operational role with the rebels since leaving the Philippines in 1986.

Gonzalez, who said he was a staff member of the Front’s negotiating team, dismissed the well-known allegations against Sison for the murders. "They are all fabricated charges," he said.

For years, Sison has fought a legal battle to stay in the Netherlands as a refugee, but the Dutch government has never moved to expel him. Sison has said he faced assassination if he were to return to the Philippines.

The European Union added Sison to its terror list in October 2002.

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Associated Press writer Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this report.