Philippine Military on alert for 2 Malaysian bomb experts

Military forces in Mindanao raised their alert level following reports on the alleged presence of two Malaysian bomb experts out to train local terrorists.

Intelligence reports circulating in Cagayan de Oro said the Malaysians are in addition to four Jemaah Islamiyah members – three Indonesians and one Singaporean – in the region engaged in training the Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Central Mindanao.

The report said a foreign terrorist and 10 BIFF members were targeting Cagayan de Oro for bombing.
The BIFF had earlier threatened to bomb key areas in Mindanao and Manila after it suffered heavy casualties from last week’s firefights with government forces in Central Mindanao. Some 50 BIFF members were reportedly killed in the armed conflict.

The reports named the Singaporean as Mawiya Husayfa who carries a $1-million bounty on his head, and the other three as Abdul Kiram, Mujair Algozi and Basit Usman, whose bounty was placed at $10 million.   

Article Source: Philippine Star

Terrorist bombed church, 7 dead

Seven people were killed while five others were injured when a bomb exploded near a church in Sumisip, Basilan on Tuesday.

Police said the explosion occurred near the Vincent Ferrer parish church where most of the victims had attended mass.

The casualties were identified as Rey Limbin, Elbert Gomoba, Kitarul Kaddik, Leniebel Cisneros, Lourdes Ablong and Badjon Gomoba. The seventh victim, Therese Claire Alegarbes, died on the way to a hospital.

The wounded were identified as Janice Alegarbes, mother of one of the fatalities; Trining and Jessa Dingcong, and Ronel and Samson Limben. They were brought to the Zamboanga City Medical Center for treatment.

Police said the victims had just emerged from the church to attend a New Year’s Eve celebration nearby in front of the house of Manuel Cisneros, a militiaman of Sitio Fine Tree, Barangay Tumahubong when the improvised explosive device exploded at 9:47 p.m.

Police said the bomb was placed inside a bag that was left under a chair.

The military, on the other hand, reported that a grenade was used in the attack.

Military bomb experts went to the scene and concluded that the explosion was caused by a grenade.

“Five died instantly while two others expired later,” said Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, Armed Forces Public Affairs Office (PAO) chief.

Zagala added the grenade blast was further aggravated by broken bottles where the explosion occurred.

Authorities suspect the Abu Sayyaf was behind the attack.

The victims were among the cooperative plantation workers in the village where Abu Sayyaf bandits have been staging attacks for extortion.

There were also reports of squabbles between armed groups and officials of the cooperative overseeing the operations of a 4,000-hectare rubber plantation in the area.

Barangay officials said there were indications that the victims knew the bomber.

“Accordingly, the suspect, who arrived carrying the bag containing the improvised explosive, was even served food by some of the victims. The bomb exploded after the suspect left,” a barangay official told  The STAR.

Senseless killing

Malacañang condemned “the senseless killing,” saying security and law enforcement authorities had been directed to pursue and arrest the perpetrators.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman said they had given financial  assistance to the victims and shouldered funeral costs of those who died.

Source Article

Nur forces massing in Cotabato

THE Philippine Army units is keeping an eye on about 200 Moro National Liberation Front fighters who were massing at a village of Midsayap, Cotabato on Monday.

The group was spotted gathering at the remote village as factions within the MNLF sought to replace its founding chairman Nur Misuari as the sole representative of the Bangsamoro people in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The Aquino administration said it would prefer a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front who can “push forward the peace agenda” amid efforts from within the MNLF to replace its founding chairman, Nur Misuari, as the sole representative of the Bangsamoro people in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

“We would like to work with people who can push forward the peace agenda and the reform agenda of the MNLF,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said as he bared that the Aquino administration would prefer a leader of the MNLF who could “push forward the peace agenda.”

Lacierda made the remark at a Palace briefing a day after the OIC rebuked Misuari for masterminding a three-week hostage siege in Zamboanga City last September.

Read More Here

Four killed in fresh Sabah shooutout

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian soldier and three militants were killed in a fresh gunfight at Sungai Nyamuk near Kampung Tanjung Batu, Lahad Datu.

Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin was quoted by The Star confirming the deaths.

The gunmen killed in the shootout had been moving in a group of five when they were spotted by security forces conducting mopping up operations at 7:45am, the daily said.

Jen Zulkifeli said the soldiers engaged them in a gun fight and forced the men to retreat. The soldiers then tracked the armed group down and engaged them in another shootout three hours later.

It was in this shootout that the soldier, as well as the gunmen, were killed.

The soldier is said to be a Private with the Royal Malay Regiment. Another soldier is also believed to have been injured in the shootout earlier today.

The standoff in sabah shows no signs of abating since the armed intruders - supporters of Jamalul Kiram II, the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu - sneaked into Lahad Datu with a cache of weapons.

Since then, the body count has ratcheted up, with over 63 deaths reported. 97 people have also been detained in connection with the insurgency.

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Lydia Gomez | Yahoo! Southeast Asia | March 12, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysia incursion toll rises to 60 after new clashes

Malaysia said clashes between intruding Filipino militants and its security forces had left 60 people dead as of late Thursday, as it rejected a ceasefire offer from the fighters' leader.

Police chief Ismail Omar said 32 followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan had been killed in two confrontations since Wednesday near the scene of a three-week standoff in Sabah state, after a military assault to dislodge them.

That brought the total dead to 60, including 52 militants. Eight Malaysian policemen were killed in skirmishes last weekend.

Troops and police are currently hunting the Islamic militants in a remote region of Borneo island, where they landed last month to assert a long-dormant territorial claim in what has become Malaysia's worst security crisis in years.

A spokesman for their Manila-based leader, who called for a midday ceasefire, said 235 people including eight women took part in the original incursion.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who flew to the region Thursday to inspect security operations, said he told Philippine leader Benigno Aquino by phone the ceasefire offer was rejected.

"I told President Aquino they must lay down their arms immediately," Najib told reporters in a village near where the army and police were searching for scores of militants.

"They have to surrender their arms and they have to do it as soon as possible."

The "sultan", Jamalul Kiram III, declared a unilateral ceasefire for 12:30 pm (0430 GMT) and urged Malaysia to reciprocate.

But Najib said Malaysian forces would press on with the offensive, sending more soldiers into the hilly region of vast oil palm estates and pockets of jungle.

Authorities said one intruder was killed in a clash Wednesday and 31 on Thursday.

They gave no details, other than to say one encounter was in the village of Tanduo, where the standoff began, and the other in the neighbouring village of Tanjung Batu to the east.

The remaining militants were still believed to be in the two villages.

Anger has mounted in Malaysia over the incursion, which began February 12 when fighters arrived from the southern Philippines to press Kiram's claim to the area.

Kiram says he is heir to the Sultanate of Sulu, which once ruled islands that are now part of the southern Philippines as well as Sabah.

The main group of militants was holed up in the sleepy farming village of Tanduo for three weeks until two deadly shootouts with security forces at the weekend triggered a military assault to dislodge them.

The attack scattered the fighters and security forces were combing through huge oil palm groves for them.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged a peaceful resolution of the bizarre incursion.

"(Ban) urges an end to the violence and encourages dialogue among all the parties for a peaceful resolution of the situation," said a statement released by his office late Wednesday.

Kiram declared the "unilateral ceasefire... in order to reciprocate the call of the UN to preserve lives", his spokesman said.

Tension is running high in eastern Sabah due to the incursion. Residents of some towns have fled after police said gunmen were spotted in other areas down the coast, raising fears of a wider guerrilla infiltration.

Late Wednesday police said the bodies of six police officers killed in a weekend ambush in the coastal town of Semporna were mutilated.

"The bodies of dead police personnel were found to have been brutally mutilated by the armed intruders," a statement said, giving no further details.

Police have said six militants responsible for the ambush were later killed.

The incursion has created a delicate situation for the two neighbours, with Manila earlier calling for Malaysian restraint just before Tuesday's military assault was launched.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said late Wednesday that his government might seek Kiram's extradition if Manila failed to take action. But the Philippine government said that was unlikely, citing the lack of an extradition treaty.

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M. Jegathesan | AFP News | March 8, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysia troops find 13 bodies, hunt gunmen after Sabah assault

FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysian security forces found 13 bodies of suspected Philippine militants as they expanded their hunt for an elusive armed group on the island of Borneo on Wednesday, a day after an assault with fighter jets, mortars and hundreds of troops.

The nearly month-long confrontation in Sabah state, in Malaysia's part of Borneo, was sparked when the armed group of about 200 sailed from the nearby southern Philippines to press an ancient claim to the resource-rich region.

"The total is 13. There could be more," Malaysian Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters at a media centre set up at the palm oil plantation of Felda Sahabat.

It was unclear if the bodies found on Wednesday had been killed in Tuesday's massive assault or included some of the 19 militants that Malaysian officials said had been killed over the weekend. At least 27 people, including eight Malaysian policemen, have been killed since Friday's first clash.

Zahid, who produced what he described as pictures of some of the dead militants, said Malaysian forces had suffered no fresh casualties since the assault was launched on Tuesday.

Malaysian police warned residents to be on alert for members of the group who had escaped into plantations that dominate the coastal area and who could be posing as farmers.

Security forces clashed with suspected militants in three separate locations on Wednesday, state news agency Bernama said, with one gunman shot and believed to be dead.

"The mopping and searching will cover a wider area given there are signs the intruders moved to another location," police inspector-general Ismail Omar told reporters.

"The security forces are tracking down their movements and will take the appropriate action."

FIGHTERS WILL NOT RETURN HOME: SPOKESMAN

Allies of the group in Manila said they had been in telephone contact with Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, the militants' leader and the brother of the self-proclaimed sultan, who said the group had split up to avoid detection.

Abraham Idjirani, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters that 10 of the sultan's followers had died in total, with 10 captured and four wounded.

"They will not come home and would rather die fighting if cornered," he said of the remaining followers in Sabah.

The family in Manila also said more followers had arrived to reinforce the group, a journey between the Southeast Asian neighbours that takes around an hour by speedboat.

Army trucks carrying dozens of soldiers continued to enter the village of Kampung Tanduo where the group had originally been holed up. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Fighter jets bombed the group's camp in the Felda Sahabat plantation early on Tuesday after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said his patience had run out. Philippine officials had urged the group to return home.

The group says it represents the now defunct sultanate of Sulu in the southern Philippines and demands recognition and payment from Malaysia due to their claim to be rightful owners of Sabah.

The security headache has strained ties between the Philippines and Malaysia and could prompt Najib to delay an election that must be held by June, adding to nervousness among investors over what could be the country's closest ever polls.

The insecurity has disrupted operations in Sabah's huge palm oil industry. Prolonged trouble could dampen growing investor interest in energy and infrastructure projects in the state, although the main oil fields are far from the standoff.

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Bazuki Muhammad | Reuters  | March 7, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysia hunts missing Filipino gunmen as more fighters join

Malaysian army commandos in the back of their truck move on the way to join an assault near the area where a stand-off with Filipino gunmen took place, in Tanduo village, Lahad Datu, Borneo’s Sabab state, Malaysia on March 5, 2013. AP

FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia—Malaysian forces searched house-to-house Wednesday after armed Filipinos apparently escaped a military assault, as a Philippine guerrilla warned more fighters had arrived.

Malaysia Tuesday launched an attack with jet fighters and soldiers on up to 300 followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of Sulu in a bid to end a three-week standoff in which 27 people had already been reported killed, including eight policemen.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had declared the operation was “weeding out” the holed-up followers of Kiram, who had come to assert a long-dormant claim to Sabah.

But authorities later indicated the militants had escaped into surrounding farmland in the remote region of Borneo island, where residents were already on edge over reports of roaming gunmen and two bloody shootouts.

“Follow-up action and house-to-house searches are being carried out carefully to ensure the safety of the policemen and soldiers,” state news agency Bernama quoted police as saying.

A leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which waged an insurgency against the Philippine government until 1996, said hardened fighters from his Muslim group had arrived to support the militants.

Thousands of Tausug sailing to Sabah to aid beleaguered comrades – MNLF exec

“Many have slipped through the security forces,” Muhajab Hashim told Agence France-Presse in Manila.

“They know the area like the back of their hands because they trained there in the past,” he said, referring to long-standing allegations that Malaysia helped trained MNLF leaders in their insurgency against the Philippines.

“We are expecting more of them to join (the battle) even if our official instruction is for them to refrain from going.”

Malaysian federal police chief Ismail Omar said late Tuesday after the assault that no militants had yet been found dead or captured. He did not explain how they could have escaped a cordon in place for the past three weeks.

“I have instructed my commanders to be on alert because we believe the enemies are still out there,” Ismail told reporters.

“We of course hope that they have not escaped.”

Malaysians, accustomed to watching neighbors Thailand and the Philippines grapple with Muslim insurgents, have been shocked by the drama, and authorities have been criticized for the ease with which the invaders slipped in to Sabah.

The crisis comes as Malaysia’s 56-year-old ruling coalition is bracing for what is expected to be the country’s closest-ever election against a formidable opposition, which has slammed the handling of the incursion.

The episode began February 12, when Malaysia’s government said an estimated 100-300 armed Filipinos had landed in Sabah and were surrounded in the sleepy farming village of Tanduo.

After an initial standoff, violence erupted there Friday with a deadly shootout, followed by a second gunfight a day later in another town hours away. Authorities have said 27 have died in the shootouts and related violence.

The Sulu gunment are followers of Kiram, 74, the Manila-based self-proclaimed heir of the former Sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled part of the southern Philippines and claimed sovereignty over Sabah.

The Sulu sultanate’s power faded a century ago but its heirs continue to insist on ownership of resource-rich Sabah, and still receive nominal Malaysian payments under a lease deal originally struck by Western colonial powers.

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Agence France-Presse | March 6, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysian air strikes illegal, violate human rights, says Roque as sultanate pleads for UN aid

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.

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Lira Dalangin-Fernandez/Veronica Uy/Abigail Kwok | InterAksyon.com | March 5, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysian-Trained MNLF Fighters Join Kiram Forces

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.

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Manila Bulletin/Yahoo Philippines | March 5, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysia attacks Filipinos to end Sabah siege

Malaysian troops moving in to flush out members of the Sulu Sultanate’s ‘royal army’ from a remote village in Lahad Datu, Sabah. The Star/Bernama-Asia News Network

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian security forces using fighter jets attacked nearly 200 Filipinos in Sabah on Tuesday to end the armed group’s three-week occupation of a Borneo village that has left 27 people dead.

Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed the assault was launched Tuesday morning after clashes in Lahad Datu in Sabah this past week killed eight policemen. He had earlier declared that security forces were authorized to take any action deemed necessary.

“At 7 a.m. this morning, security forces launched an attack on Tanduo village,” Najib said, adding that negotiations with the “royal army” of the Sultanate of Sulu, believed to number 100 to 300 and holed up in a farming village, had failed.

The main group of Filipinos comprises members of the clan of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of Sulu, some bearing rifles and grenade launchers, who slipped past naval patrols last month, landed at a remote coastal village in Sabah’s Lahad Datu district and insisted the territory was theirs.

Nineteen Filipino gunmen have also been slain in Lahad Datu and another Sabah coastal district involving a smaller group of Filipinos since Friday. The skirmishes shocked Malaysians unaccustomed to such violence in their country, which borders insurgency-plagued southern provinces in the Philippines and Thailand.

“The government has to take the appropriate action to protect national pride and sovereignty as our people have demanded,” Najib said in a statement issued through the national news agency, Bernama.

Authorities made every effort to resolve the siege peacefully since the presence of the group in Lahad Datu district became known on February 12, including holding talks to encourage the group to leave without facing any serious legal repercussions, Najib said.

“The longer this intrusion persisted, it became clear to the authorities that the intruders had no intention to leave Sabah,” Najib said. “As a peace-loving Islamic country that upholds efforts to settle conflicts through negotiations, our struggle to avoid bloodshed in Lahad Datu did not work.”

Violence first erupted on Friday when a shootout between security forces and the Sulu gunmen left 12 Filipinos and two police officers dead.

Another gunbattle Saturday in the town of Semporna, hours away from Tanduo by road, left six police and six gunmen dead, raising fears of a wider infiltration.

Another gunman was beaten to death there Saturday by villagers, police have said.

In this picture taken on Saturday. March 2, 2013, a group of Malaysian police commandos stand guard near the area where the stand-off with Filipino gunmen took place in Tanduo village, Lahad Datu, Sabab , Malaysia. Gunmen ambushed and killed six Malaysian policemen. AP PHOTO/BERNAMA NEWS AGENCY

Local media reported fighter jets screaming over the stand-off site and explosions were heard. Military trucks were also seen moving into the area, which is surrounded by palm oil estates.

Najib had ordered a doubling of security forces in the area after the weekend violence.

Sabah police chief Hamza Taib confirmed the attack involved ground and air operations conducted by both the police and military, which included bombing the area. He declined to elaborate, saying the operation remained ongoing two hours after it was launched shortly after dawn.

Abraham Idjirani, spokesman for the Sulu sultanate, told reporters in Manila that the Filipino group in Sabah would not surrender and that their leader was safe. The group is led by a brother of Kiram.

Lahad Datu district is a short boat ride from the Philippine province, and the clan members had rebuffed calls to leave, claiming Sabah belonged to their royal sultanate and that Malaysia has been paying a paltry amount to lease the vast territory with many palm plantations.

The Philippine government had asked Malaysia to exercise maximum tolerance to avoid further bloodshed.

In Manila, presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said Tuesday that Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was in Kuala Lumpur meeting with his Malaysian counterpart.

“We’ve done everything we could to prevent this, but in the end Kiram’s people chose this path,” Carandang said.

An undetermined number of other armed Filipinos are suspected to have encroached on other districts within 300 kilometers (200 miles) of Lahad Datu.

Some in Muslim-majority Malaysia advocated patience in handling the Lahad Datu intruders. But the deaths of the Malaysian police officers, including six who were ambushed while inspecting a waterfront village in a separate Sabah district on Saturday, have triggered widespread alarm over the possibility of more such intrusions.

For the second time in two days, President Benigno Aquino III had gone on national TV to urge the Filipino group in Lahad Datu to lay down their arms, warning that the situation could worsen and endanger about 800,000 Filipinos settlers there.

The crisis could have wide-ranging political ramifications in both countries. Some fear it might undermine peace talks brokered by Malaysia between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Muslim rebel group in Mindanao.

It also could affect public confidence in Malaysia’s long-ruling National Front coalition, which is gearing up for general elections that must be held by the end of June. The coalition requires strong support from voters in Sabah to fend off an opposition alliance that hopes to end more than five decades of federal rule by the National Front.

The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has advised Americans to avoid traveling to much of Sabah’s east coast, which includes towns that are embarkation points for nearby diving resort islands, because of the potential for more violence.

Supporters of the Filipino group took their campaign to cyberspace on Monday, manipulating Google listings to post a message backing the incursion.

A number of Philippine sites also were reportedly defaced by pro-Malaysia hackers.

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M. Jegathesan | Agence France-Presse, Associated Press | March 5, 2013 | Article Link

Semporna clash leaves 6 Malaysian lawmen, 11 sultan followers dead—DFA

MANILA, Philippines—The clash between the “Royal Army” of the Sultanate of Sulu and Malaysian authorities in the village of Simunul in Semporna town has left six policemen and 11 supporters of the Sultan dead, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The clash is the second incident of violence in Sabah following the gunfight on Friday in Tanduo village in Lahad Datu Friday morning that left 12 dead on the side of the Sultanate and two dead from the Malaysian security forces.

“Based on the report of our embassy officials and the information gathered directly from the special branch operations of the Malaysian police, as of 8 p.m. on Sunday March 3, the Semporna incident that happened over the weekend has been brought under control by the Malaysian authorities,” DFA Spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters Monday.

“During the Semporna incident, six members of the police and 11 supporters of the Kiram group were killed in action,” Hernandez said.

Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III had previously sent his men to Sabah to reclaim what he says is their rightful territory.

The Malaysian government has been repeatedly ordering the group in Lahad Datu, led by the Sultan’s brother Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, to leave Sabah.

A separate group had attacked a police station in Semporna and “freed more than a hundred Filipino Muslims who were arrested on Friday and they even captured the Malaysian police chief and his colleagues,” Alim Hashim Mudjahab, chairman of the Islamic Council Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), had said.

Hernandez said Monday that DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario had met anew with Malaysian Ambassador Mohammad Zamri bin Mohammad Kassim to convey the Philippines’ request for the Malaysian authorities to exercise maximum tolerance in dealing with the sultan’s followers.

He also reiterated the government’s request that the Malaysian authorities give a full briefing of the operations conducted against Kiram’s group and that a Philippine Navy ship, BRP Tagbanua be allowed to dock and provide humanitarian, medical, and consular assistance to Filipinos there.

“The loss of lives in Sabah is deeply regrettable, we offer our profound condolences to the families of victims of this unfortunate incident,” Hernandez said.

Del Rosario left for Kuala Lumpur Monday afternoon to personally hand over the requests of the Philippine government to his counterpart in Malaysia, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

Hernandez said that Del Rosario and Aman would “continue discussions on how to avert further loss of lives.”

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Matikas Santos | INQUIRER.net | March 4, 2013 | Article Link

Malaysia threatens 'drastic' steps in Borneo siege

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.

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M. Jegathesan | AFP News | March 2, 2013 | Article Link

Bizarre Borneo Standoff Ends in Bloodshed

A dramatic three-week standoff on the island of Borneo claimed its first lives Friday, as Malaysian security forces exchanged gunfire—possibly using mortars—with the so-called Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu.Early reports indicate that 10 to 12 sultanate forces, two Malaysian police commandos, and the owner of a house taken by the sultan’s followers were killed in the battle, with further injuries on both sides. Meanwhile, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said that 10 of the sultan’s followers were in Malaysian custody but had no word on casualties. Both sides blamed the other for firing first—as the Filipinos of the sultanate sought food to replenish their dwindling stores, Malaysian security forces tightened their security cordon—or both.

Friday’s violence is rooted in “one of the most bizarre relationships in international relations,” according to foreign policy analyst Joseph Hammond.

The province of Sabah, in the present-day Malaysian half of Borneo, was a 1658 gift from the sultan of Brunei to the Sultanate of Sulu for helping defeat an uprising. In 1878, the Sultanate of Sulu, which once extended through large swaths of the southern Philippines, leased (or ceded, depending on the translation) Sabah in perpetuity to the British North Borneo Company, which in turn ceded control of the territory to the British government in 1946. In 1957, the sultan, by then a figurehead, declared the lease void and assigned his claim to the central Philippines government in Manila. This did not stop residents of Sabah from voting to join the Malaysian Federation in 1963, but Malaysia continues to pay the lease (some 6,300 ringgits—about $1,500) each year to Manila.

The standoff began in mid-February with an amphibious landing and naval blockade. On 9 February a small flotilla of speedboats, launched from Simunul Island in the Philippines, arrived off the coast of Malaysia and disembarked a landing party. The self-styled “Rajah Mudah,” or crown prince—the younger brother of the sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III—came ashore and bloodlessly captured the village of Tunduao in Lahad Datu town with an unknown number of followers, but with at least several dozen heavily armed men.

“We came here in peace,” Rajah Mudah said in a statement at the time. “We are not here to wage war. The armed men who are with me are the Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. We will never bring war to our own territory, much less to our own people.”

Malaysian police and armed forces quickly surrounded the group, established a sea and land blockade, and attempted negotiations. After several deadlines passed for concluding the negotiations, neither side appeared ready to make concessions. Both sides advocated a peaceful resolution.

The Philippine government struck a balance by neither forgoing its claim to Sabah nor backing the armed incursion. On 26 February, President Benigno Aquino issued a statement to the nation and the sultan’s followers asking them to return peacefully to the Philippines. He backed up his words with naval action. The Philippine navy has coordinated patrols with the Malaysian navy and conducted unilateral patrols to prevent reinforcements from departing the Tawi Tawi islands or Sulu. The Philippine navy sent the landing craft utility Tagbanua, embarked with “Filipino-Muslim leaders, social workers and medical personnel” on a “humanitarian mission” to try to bring the sultan’s followers home.

It is unclear whether the standoff has ended. Reports do not account for another 100 or more followers, believed to comprise the group holed up in Lahad Datu, Sabah Province, but the Philippines government received word that some of the Sultan’s men may have escaped toward the sea. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered his commanders to “take necessary action” to force the sultan’s followers out of the northeast corner of Borneo.

According to the Philippines’ Inquirer Global Nation, the sultan’s followers feel excluded by a peace deal struck between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last year that made no mention of the sultan’s claim.

“They are not interested, this government and the previous governments, Rajah Mudah said. “So we decided to act on our own.”

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Lt. Scott Cheney-Peters | USNI News | March 1, 2013 | Article Link