Misuari blasts Aquino for 'siding with the enemy of his people'
By: Abigail Kwok, InterAksyon.com
March 5, 2013
MANILA, Philippines -- An incensed Moro National Liberation Front founder Nur Misuari lashed at President Benigno Aquino III for “siding with the enemy of his people” and warned that any attempt to arrest Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III would lead to “total chaos.”
At the same time, Misuari warned Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that any harm to Filipino civilians in Sabah as a result of the hostilities between Malaysian security forces and followers of Kiram pressing their claim to the territory would be "tantamount to declaration of war against our people and the MNLF."
Nevertheless he offered a grand nephew he said is a distant relative of the Malaysian leader or himself to act as emissary to Najib.
"If there is a signal from KL of the willingness to talk to my emissary and in fact if need be, for the sake of peace and to save the lives of our young people ... if there is a need for me to visit KL, to possibly iron out differences between two nations, I am willing to go at my own expense," Misuari said.
Of Aquino, Misuari said:
"If the President has nothing to say, he should not open his mouth anymore."
"What he has done is very bad. It is unbecoming for a head of state to be siding with the enemy of his own people,” he said.
“I don’t know who is advising him and for what reason … he is aligning this country with Malaysia, a colonial power occupying the land of our people. I am against that. Totally against that."
"With all my soul, I hope the President will be properly advised and he will recant (his statements against the sultan) otherwise we cannot forgive him," Misuari added.
Aquino has come under fire from several quarters for his statements on the unfolding situation in Sabah, calling the sultanate’s cause “hopeless” and “foolhardy” and urging Kiram to order his followers home and, after the initial violence last Friday, to surrender without conditions.
He has also ordered Kiram investigated for possible violations of the Constitution and the Revised Penal Code.
“There is an attempt even to arrest the sultan, I understand,” Misuari said.
“Let them do that. The country will be in total chaos if they do, I tell you.”
Misuari blasts Aquino for 'siding with the enemy of his people' - InterAksyon.com
Malaysian-Trained MNLF Fighters Join Kiram Forces
By: Edd K. Usman
Published: March 5, 2013
Malaysian security forces are now facing battle-tested, Malaysian-trained commanders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who know Sabah like the palm of their hands.
Hadji Acmad Bayam, former chief propagandist of the MNLF, revealed this yesterday to the Manila Bulletin, adding that these MNLF forces may have at their disposal a huge arsenal, which they hid deep in Sabah’s rugged terrain when they returned to the Philippines after their rigid training.
Among the firearms are Belgian-made G1 and FAL, which the late Libya leader Colonel Moammar Khadafy supplied through Malaysia.
Bayam said he was confident the Malaysian authorities were not able to find the hidden MNLF firearms because they were kept very well by the MNLF commanders who stayed behind in Sabah.
During that training, Malaysian military trainors even joked about the firearms at the MNLF training camp on Jampiras Island, off Sabah, as they turned over Khadafy’s weapons’ supply.
“We are not even sure if the firearms we are giving you will not be turned against,” the Malaysian trainors had said in a jest.
“Well, speaking of self-fulfilling prophecy,” Bayam said, recalling the jokes of the Malaysian trainors.
Now, Filipinos in Sabah, who are not part of the forces of the Sultanate of Sulu, have already joined the fighting in reaction to what they perceived as Malaysian “atrocities” for killing Imam Maas and his four sons at 7:50 p.m. Saturday.
He recalled that Malaysia’s leadership had even suspected the then chief minister of Sabah, Tun Mustapha, a Tausug from Sulu, of “conspiring” with MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari to secede the oil-rich island.
“You know, if Mindanao is to Manila, Sabah is to Kuala Lumpur,” said Bayam, explaining that Mindanao and Sabah are the “milking cows” of the Philippines and Malaysia, respectively, for their rich natural resources.
Bayam, who yielded to then President Fidel V. Ramos, stayed in Sabah, Malaysia, for nine years before the peace talks with the Ramos administration in 1993.
Bayam stayed in Sabah on-and-off, in 1976-79, in 1980-1986, among other dates.
Further, he said many of the seasoned rebel commanders and rank-and-file members chose to remain on Sabah island to live there.
Majority of them are from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga Peninsula, but there are also Maguindanaons, Iranons, and probably Maranaos, he said.
A few days ago, he said one of the MNLF foreign-trained commanders belonging to the Top 90 Batch, told him that he was enlisting Tausug warriors and others for reinforcement to the Royal Security Force (RSF) of the Sultanate of Sulu.
“I was trying to contact him yesterday but his phone cannot be reached anymore. I guess he was able to penetrate the Malaysian and Philippine sea-borne blockades in their respective borders.
Bayam described the commander “as soft-spoken but firm and true leader-fighter in actual shooting war.” However, he requested that the commander’s name be not made public.
Last Sunday, Abraham J. Idjirani, spokesman of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, said 40 people from Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Zamboanga Peninsula breached the blockades and reached Lahad Datu, Sabah, scene of the standoff that erupted into a firefight.
He said there are many others who are now trying to go to Sabah and help the sultan’s followers led by Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram.
Bayam said that with the way the situation in Sabah is going on, he sees no turning back.
On the other hand, he said this gives the United States an opportunity to correct its “historical error” it committed against the Moro people.
He said this was even acknowledged by the administration of then President George Bush in response to a letter from the late Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Ustadhz Salamat Hashim.
Cooler heads should put themselves at work and resolve the issue on Sabah claim.
“This is the best time and opportunity,” Bayam said. “They should seize the fleeting opportunity or lost it forever.”
“As the only leader of the free world, the only guardian of human rights, freedom and democracy, the American government has the opportunity to correct the historical error against the Moro people,” Bayam said.
Feeling Abandoned
Meanwhile, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III who still feeling abandoned by the Philippines yesterday said they are now relying on the United Nations, United States, and United Kingdom for help.
He said they are no longer waiting for any help from the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III because none is coming anyway.
Kiram aired his sentiments on DZMM radio early Monday morning.
“We are not waiting anymore. No more. There is no help (from the Philippines),” he said in Filipino.
He said now they will rely on the UN, US, and UK.
On the appeal of the President to preserve the lives of the Sultanate of Sulu’s followers in Lahad Datu, Sabah, the sultan struck a defiant mood.
“No more. There is no more preservation... it’s in the hands of Almighty Allah,” the sultan said.
As this developed, former congressman Satur Ocampo, Dr. Carol Araullo, both Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Vice President Rafaelita Gonio of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), paid a visit yesterday at Astanah Kiram in Maharlika Village, Taguig City.
Ocampo and Araullo expressed support to the cause of the Kirams in trying to claim Sabah from Malaysia.
Ocampo said that the President should review the government’s stand because the new developments.
Gonio said her support is a personal one because Philconsa has not yet made its position on the issue.
At about 12:20 p.m. also yesterday, another militant, independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casino also arrived to visit the sultan.
Early Sunday evening, former secretary of Department of National Defense (DND) Norberto Gonzales made a surprised visit at Astanah Kiram, as he belied allegations he had a hand in the Sabah standoff.
He said he saw the sultan on television and felt sad for his condition.
On Malacañang’s allegations he was allegedly one of the “instigators” of the Sabah standoff, he said he did not know about it.
Whether he is a “collaborator” in the now bloody standoff, he had an answer.
“If being a friend (makes you) a collaborator, then I am a collaborator,” said Gonzales, the former former National Security Adviser of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Manila Bulletin
Malaysian air strikes illegal, violate human rights, says Roque as sultanate pleads for UN aid
By: Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, Veronica Uy and Abigail Kwok, InterAksyon.com
March 5, 2013
MANILA, Philippines -The air strikes launched by Malaysia in an assault on followers of the Sulu sultanate in Sabah are illegal and should be protested by the Philippine government in a global body, an international law expert said. The sultanate appealed to the United Nations to intervene in the crisis, as militants said the Aquino administration had virtually signalled Malaysia that it "endorsed" the slaughter with its surrender-without-terms order to the Sulu men.
"The air strikes by Malaysia are contrary to human rights law, not proportional to the threat posed by the Filipinos in Sabah, and not necessary," lawyer Harry Roque, chairman of the Center for International Law and director of International Legal Studies at the University of the Philippines, wrote in his blog.
For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs would not say if the air strikes and the ground assault by the Malaysians constituted the maximum tolerance requested by the Philippines of Malaysia through Secretary Albert del Rosario.
Reports in Malaysian media quoted officials there as saying the use of air strikes against the group led by the Sulu crown prince, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, was meant to ensure the safety of Malaysian security forces.
At least eight Malaysian policemen have been killed since clashes with the group of Kiram began Friday.
Roque suggested that the government seek the intervention of such bodies as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.
"The Philippine government should file a complaint. If it will not exercise protection over these people, then who will?" he told InterAksyon in a telephone interview.
Force used not proportionate
“Under human rights law,” Roque wrote, “the use of force in police operations should be absolutely necessary and strictly proportional to the threat posed by the Filipinos in Sabah."
"Moreover, respect for the right to life of a police suspect requires that the nature and degree of force used be proportionate to the threat posed by the suspect to the safety and security of the police officers, other individuals and society as a whole,” he added.
In fact, Roque said, “Malaysian law enforcement officials should, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to force, and in particular, the resort to
airstrikes."
“Since the use of force against the Filipinos involved in the standoff was illegal,” the Philippine government should demand that the international community ask Malaysia to cease and desist "from further breaching human rights law," Roque said.
"It should later be asked to pay compensation to the victims of its use of disproportionate use of force," he added.
DFA: Malaysians kept extending deadline
DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said: “The force used by the Malaysian authorities was to counter the force used by Kiram’s group. The Malaysians have been extending the deadline” to move against the sultanate’s followers.
“On our side, we have been asking the group of Kiram to pull back and come back to their homes and families. We didn’t receive that expected cooperation from the group of Kiram. What happened is exactly what we didn’t want to happen -- which was loss of lives from both sides,” he added.
Asked if he thought the airstrikes were “excessive,” Hernandez said he could not comment on tactical operations happening on the ground.
Appeal for UN intervention
The camp of the Sulu sultan, meanwhile, appealed to the United Nations to intervene in the violence that erupted in Sabah.
Abraham Idjirani, sultanate spokesman, said an international peacekeeping force should be deployed to Lahad Datu to avoid further violence.
Idjirani issued the plea even as Malaysia assaulted the Suluanons in Lahad Datu and President Benigno Aquino again refused to talk to the sultan unless the latter orders the fighters to come home.
Idjirani also asked the UN to conduct an investigation into the incident and said the sultanate and its followers were willing to subject themselves to interrogation and criticism if warranted.
Militants: PNoy complicit in slaughter
Militant groups said the administration of Philippine President Bernigno Aquino III had virtually endorsed the “massacre” of Filipinos in Sabah.
The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a statement, “this war freak, politically selective and gun-obsessed diplomatic policy has emboldened the Malaysian military authorities to launch a merciless attack on members of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu.”
Mr. Aquino had given, by his statements openly commanding the sultanate’s followers to surrender unconditionally to Malaysia or be wiped out, “tacit approval for Malaysia authorities to bombard the lair of Kiram III.” The political call for Kiram to surrender is a statement” that the Aquino government is willing to gamble the lives of 200 Filipinos demanding the country's legitimate claim to Sabah," said Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France.
France said President Aquino and top officials of his Cabinet shall be held grossly accountable and liable for every death of Filipinos in Sabah, including those not identified with the Royal Sultanate of Sulu.
Malaysian air strikes illegal, violate human rights, says Roque as sultanate pleads for UN aid - InterAksyon.com