KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's veterans' association Monday urged the government to arrest political leaders if they continue to demand the return of Chin Peng, the former communist leader of a violent insurgency.

Prime Minister Najib Razak last week ruled out allowing 85-year-old Chin Peng to come home after four decades in exile, saying it would anger those whose relatives were killed in the 1948-1960 "Malayan Emergency".

Members of the ruling coalition have pushed for leniency for the former guerrilla fighter, who before the insurgency was honoured for helping the British fight the Japanese in Malaya during World War II.

"Chin Peng can never return to Malaysia and the security forces veterans are very unhappy with this attempt by groups to insist on this killer"s return to our country," said Muhammad Haji Abdul Ghani, president of the Malaysian Veterans' Association.

"Those political parties that support Chin Peng's return, who are lobbying for it and demanding it, are clearly supportive of the Communist ideology as Chin Peng has never renounced Communism," he said.

"The government must detain these people under the ISA (Internal Security Act) because their demands would affect the national security of our country," he told a press conference.

The ISA allows for indefinite detention without trial. After the conclusion of World War II, Chin Peng led the China-backed Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in a guerrilla campaign against the British colonial
and Malaysian governments.

He left Malaysia shortly after the end of the bloody 12-year uprising and has been in exile since. He is currently living in Thailand.

The CPM signed a peace agreement with the Malaysian government in 1989 that allowed several other high-ranking communist leaders to return but Chin Peng was knocked back and lost his final legal appeal last month.

Teng Hock Nan, a senior leader in the Gerakan party which is a Chinese-based member of the ruling coalition, has appealed for the government to allow the ageing former fighter to return.

The Socialist Party of Malaysia has also called on the government to honour the peace agreement and allow Chin Peng's homecoming.

However, veterans at the press conference expressed their disgust at the prospect of leniency.

"The communists under Chin Peng killed women and children, including some of my relatives and my friends. So many lives lost, I can never forgive him," said 50-year-old major Lee Hock Sun, who battled communist holdouts in the 1980s. -AFP