Malaysia threatens 'drastic' steps in Borneo siege

[ChinaToday]

LAHAD DATU, Malaysia (AFP) - Malaysia threatened Saturday to take "drastic action" against intruding followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan who have vowed to dig in following a shootout that killed 14 people.

Twelve followers of the little-known sultan of Sulu and two Malaysian security personnel were killed in Friday's firefight, police said, as the more than two-week-old siege in a remote corner of Malaysia turned deadly.

Dozens of Filipinos have been holed up on Borneo island, surrounded by a massive Malaysian police and military cordon, since landing by boat from the nearby Philippines to insist the area belongs to their Islamic leader.

"We want them to surrender immediately. If they don't, they will face drastic action," Hamza Taib, police chief of the Malaysian state of Sabah where the drama was taking place, told AFP.

He declined to provide details of what security forces had in store but his comments echoed growing Malaysian impatience with the situation.

In Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino urged the gunmen to surrender immediately.

"To those who have influence and the capacity to reason with (the sultan's followers), I ask you to convey this message: surrender now, without conditions," he said in a statement.

The Filipinos, who are estimated to number between 100 and 300, sailed from their remote islands to press Jamalul Kiram III's claim to Sabah.

Kiram, 74, claims to be the heir to the Islamic sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of the southern Philippines and a portion of Borneo.

In an immediate response to President Aquino's appeal, Kiram's spokesman Abraham Idjirani said the gunmen would remain in Sabah.

"We have spoken: It's honour over lives," he said, adding that the deaths of the sultan's followers have "only strengthened our resolve to defend the rights of the Filipino people over Sabah".

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has been embarrassed by the security breach, said doors for negotiation are closed and urged the gunmen to surrender.

"The Sulu rebels have to surrender or they will face the action of our security forces," he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper

While it is not clear how the firefight erupted, Najib said the two police officers were gunned down after walking into a trap.

"I was told some Sulu gunmen had waved the white flag but when the Malaysian forces moved in, they were fired upon instead," he said.

Muslim-majority Malaysia had previously avoided tough talk, expressing hope the intruders would leave peacefully.

But now even if they give up, they will face Malaysian prosecution, Hamza said, after he met with Malaysia's home minister and other top security officials.

Local residents were staying indoors and the usually bustling coastal town of Lahad Datu -- the area's only major town, about 150 kilometres from the standoff site -- was quiet with most shops closed on Saturday.
The Sulu sultanate's power faded about a century ago but it has continued to receive nominal payments from Malaysia for Sabah under a historical lease arrangement passed down from European colonial powers.

Malaysia threatens 'drastic' steps in Borneo siege - The West Australian

Malaysia should not hesitate to teach the greedy philipinos a lesson.

 

[ChinaToday]

Six Malaysian Security Officers Killed in Sultan Conflict

Fears of a wider confrontation between a Filipino Muslim clan and security forces in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state sharpened Sunday after Malaysian police said unidentified gunmen ambushed and killed six Malaysian security officers.


The firefight followed clashes on Friday that killed 12 Filipinos and two Malaysian commandoes after armed intruders representing the Philippines-based Sultan of Sulu refused to abandon what they say is their historic claim to the territory, turning a centuries-old dispute in an overlooked corner of Southeast Asia into an increasingly bloody battle for power and land.

The conflict is an awkward one for both the Malaysian and Philippine governments. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected a call national elections in the coming months, and can't afford to look weak on security issues. Officials in the Philippines, meanwhile, worry that the standoff is designed to sabotage a fragile peace process between the government and main Muslim rebel group in the south of the country, which analysts say could hamper the growth of Islamist militant networks across the whole of Southeast Asia.

In the latest clashes, Malaysian police chief Ismail Omar told reporters Sunday that a police patrol was attacked late Saturday in the coastal town of Semporna, around 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Friday's clashes in Lahad Datu district. Authorities are investigating additional sightings of armed intruders in other parts of Sabah, which have thrown this resource-rich state on the northeast corner of Borneo into a state of confusion and fear.

Indeed, when a flotilla of motorboats set off from the Philippines to the Malaysian-controlled portion of Borneo on Feb. 9, Malaysian authorities didn't know what was going on at first. Officials worried that the intruders could be members of one of the Islamist guerrilla groups based in the southern Philippines; terrorists had struck in the area before, notably kidnapping 21 tourists and staff from a Malaysian diving resort in 2000.

Instead, the invaders were sent by Filipino clan leader Jamalul Kiram III, one of several members of the Kiram family claiming the informal, but culturally influential, title of Sultan of Sulu, and setting off a sometimes surreal chain of events.

Many local residents fled when reports began to circulate that 200 armed foreigners had turned up on their shores. Local government leaders later advised people living along the entire coast to stay in their homes as they worked to cordon off the intruders' base on the eastern tip of Sabah. The Philippines, meanwhile, sent navy patrols to the area to prevent reinforcements joining the self-described "royal sultanate army."

Officials in Manila privately speculated that the incursion might be designed to sabotage a fledgling peace agreement between the Philippine government and the largest Muslim rebel group operating in the south of the country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. On Saturday, President Benigno Aquino III urged Mr. Kiram's followers to surrender immediately.

"If you have grievances, the path you chose was wrong," Mr. Aquino said. "The just and, indeed, the only correct thing for you to do is surrender."

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib warned Saturday that his government wouldn't compromise. "Either they surrender or face the consequences if they refuse," Mr. Najib said.

The Kiram family, though, firmly rejected Mr. Aquino's demands, and it appears that further violence could follow.

"The decision remains the same. They will not return here because honor is worth more than life," Jacel Kiram, one of Mr. Kiram's daughters, told Manila-based radio station DZBB. "What is life without honor?"

There are several territorial feuds dotted around the region, most notably in the South China Sea. China claims the entire area as its own, despite rival claims for portions of the waters from the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Brunei.

The past year has seen a series of showdowns between Chinese paramilitary surveillance vessels and Philippine and Vietnamese prospecting vessels scouting out some of the vast oil and gas reserves that some geologists believe lie beneath the sea.

The row over Sabah, though, is one of the oldest, most convoluted disputes.

It began in 1658, when the Sultan of Brunei ceded the area to the Sultan of Sulu for helping to quash a rebellion. The Kiram family later leased Sabah to the British North Borneo Company. But instead of handing Sabah back to the Sulu sultanate, which was by then part of the Philippines, the British folded the territory into what was then called the Federation of Malaya in 1963.

Since then, the various claimants to the Sultanate of Sulu have made intermittent claims for control of Sabah. So, too, has the Philippine government.

In 1968, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos made secret plans to invade and annex Sabah, only to abort them when Muslim troops recruited for the project rebelled when they learned its true nature. They were massacred, triggering an uprising in the Muslim-dominated southern provinces of the predominantly Christian Philippines.

Mr. Aquino previously has described the Philippines' claim to Sabah as "dormant," but in recent days Philippine government officials have suggested that the country could re-examine its legal claim in response to the publicity generated by the Kiram clan's attempted invasion. Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Friday told reporters that the Sabah claim could be taken to the International Court of Justice, among other forums, for resolution—a move that could undermine the Philippines' generally strong relations with Malaysia.

Malaysia Forces Killed in Sultan Clash - WSJ.com