Self-exiled communist leader dies at 83

Jose Maria Sison (pic), who launched one of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgencies, has died at 83, the Communist Party of the Philippines announced.

The former university professor died in Holland, where he had lived in self-imposed exile since the collapse of peace talks in 1987 when the rebellion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives was at its peak.“Sison ... passed away at around 8.40pm (Philippine/Malaysian time) after two weeks’ confinement in a hospital in Utrecht,” the party said in a statement yesterday, without specifying the cause of death.