MNLF enters Sabah

House-to-house search in Sabah for sultan’s men

MANILA, Philippines - As Malaysian forces searched house-to-house in Sabah for armed followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, battle-hardened fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) managed to penetrate a tight naval cordon in the Sulu Sea to reinforce the sultan’s forces.

The MNLF said fresh fighting in Lahad Datu last night left nine fighters of the sultanate’s army dead.

Malaysia’s defense ministry, for its part, announced that 13 Filipinos were killed in an air and ground assault last Tuesday.

“Many (fighters) have slipped through the security forces. They know the area like the back of their hand because they trained there in the past,” Muhajab Hashim, chairman of the MNLF’s Islamic Command Council, said.

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

The trip between Tawi-Tawi and Sabah takes about an hour by speedboat.

The MNLF waged a decades-long insurgency against the Philippine government before signing a peace pact in 1996.

Hashim could not say how many MNLF fighters had managed to slip through naval cordons set up by the Philippines and Malaysia, but said “thousands” had earlier expressed interest in joining. The MNLF’s Islamic Command Council oversees the group’s armed forces, which was supposed to disarm as part of the 1996 peace pact but never fully complied.

He said that although MNLF leaders had not officially instructed their men to sail to Malaysia, they fully supported the sultan’s efforts to reclaim the Malaysian state of Sabah as his territory.

“MNLF fighters are adherents of the sultan, we are followers. So there is more than an alliance,” he said.

“We feel very strongly against the attacks against our brothers from Sulu,” he said.

However, Hashim’s claim was belied by Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman. “No reinforcement arrived there. I’m betting on that,” he said.

Malaysian security forces launched a major offensive with jet fighters and armored vehicles on Tuesday to end a three-week stand-off with followers of Kiram that left at least 40 people dead including eight policemen, based on the latest count.

However, the sultan’s aides said in Manila that the militants, believed to originally number between 100 and 300, had escaped Tuesday’s attacks.

Sketchy casualty figure

Prime Minister Najib Razak had declared the operation on Tuesday was “weeding out” the holed-up followers of Kiram.

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 senior MNLF official said a new Malaysian offensive last night killed nine followers of the Sulu sultan.

“The Malaysian armed forces ground and air assault resulted in the killing of nine RSF KIA (royal sultanate forces killed in action). Heavy fighting still ongoing, no KIA or WIA (wounded in action) on the side of the Malaysian Army,” the MNLF official said.

But he said Kiram’s armed followers were able to inflict “heavy casualties” on Malaysian security forces in Bukid Garam, Semporna at around noon yesterday. He did not give figures.

He said the Malaysian troops were on a convoy of military trucks when waylaid by the sultan’s gunmen, who also seized weapons and supplies.

“For the RSF in Lahad Datu it’s victory or graveyard. They may be running away today but they will come back and fight again tomorrow,” the MNLF official said.

Malaysian police said one gunman was shot yesterday, and warned residents to be on alert for members of the group who had likely escaped into palm oil plantations that dominate the coastal area and who could be posing as farmers. It was not clear if the police were referring to the same gunman reported in Bernama.

The report said the armed “terrorist” tried to ambush Malaysian security forces conducting mopping up operations yesterday morning.

The gunman, who was unidentified, reportedly fired at the Malaysian policemen and soldiers, who fought back.

“However, the body of the shot terrorist was retrieved by his accomplices,” Bernama quoted Police Inspector General Tan Sri Ismail Omar as saying.

The Malaysian side did not suffer any casualties, the report said.

Malaysia’s The Star Online, for its part, said the bodies of nine of the sultan’s followers have been unearthed in a mass grave in Kampung Tanduo.

“This is the proof, the bodies that we managed to gather, and we are in the process of collecting more bodies,” the report quoted Defense Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying.

“The total is 13. There could be more,” he said, referring to the number of bodies found.

Malaysian authorities will conduct a “full post mortem” on the bodies to determine how they died.

Ismail said the sultanate’s followers have been disguising as ordinary civilians to evade pursuing state forces.

Bernama said Malaysian citizens have been asked to be “extra careful” and to get updates from the nearest police detachments.

“The mopping and searching will cover a wider area, given there are signs the intruders moved to another location,” the police official told reporters. “The security forces are tracking down their movements and will take the appropriate action.”

He 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.”

Yesterday, army trucks carrying dozens of soldiers continued to enter the village of Tanduo where the group had originally been holed up, while a helicopter hovered overhead.

Fighter jets bombed the group’s camp in the Felda Sahabat plantation early on Tuesday after the Malaysian prime minister said his patience had run out. Philippine officials had urged the group, which numbers close to 200, to return home.

Kiram, who lives in Maharlika Village in Taguig City, claims to represent the Sultanate of Sulu in Mindanao and is demanding recognition and payment from Malaysia for their claim as rightful owners of Sabah.

His family and supporters in Manila said they had been in telephone contact with his brother Agbimuddin, who is head of what they called the royal sultanate army in Sabah. Agbimuddin is also called Raja Muda or crown prince.

“Agbimuddin had just called us informing that he and his royal army members are safe,” Abraham Idjirani, sultanate secretary-general and spokesman, said. Idjirani said Agbimuddin had to limit his calls for security reason.

Idjirani said Agbimuddin had expressed belief they were being labeled terrorists by Malaysia to justify its attacks.

Agbimuddin also said his group had split up to avoid detection.

The security headache 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.

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 into 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 Feb. 12, when Malaysia’s government said an estimated 100 to 300 armed Filipinos had landed in Sabah and were surrounded in the sleepy farming village of Tanduo.

The MNLF was founded by radical Muslim scholar Nur Misuari to fight for a Muslim homeland in Mindanao in the late 1960s, and had once received support from Malaysia.

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. Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, Alexis Romer