RP suspends talks with communists

RP suspends talks with communists

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines has suspended indefinitely talks in Norway with communist rebels after a guerrilla death squad gunned down a congressman outside his home, the presidential palace said on Thursday.

House of Representatives member Rodolfo Aguinaldo and one of his bodyguards were shot and killed on Tuesday night in front of the legislator's house in Tuguegarao city in the northern Philippines.

A communist hit-squad claimed responsibility for the killings of Aguinaldo, a former police colonel whom the guerrillas had accused of torturing leftist detainees when he was still a police officer in the 1970s.

Luis Jalandoni, chief negotiator for the communist New People's Army in the peace talks in the Norwegian capital Oslo, later issued a statement supporting the killing of Aguinaldo.