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MNLF warns of ‘long war’ with Malaysia
By Perseus Echeminada and Jaime Laude (The Philippine Star) | Updated April 1, 2013
MANILA, Philippines - The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) yesterday warned of a “long, protracted war” against Malaysia if the country will not heed the call of the United Nations for a peaceful resolution of the ongoing Sabah crisis.
MNLF spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla told The STAR that the royal army of the sultanate of Sulu and thousands of Tausugs in Sabah are now waging a guerrilla war against the Malaysian forces over their claim to the disputed territory, and “if Malaysia will not sit on the negotiating table and continue its barbaric all-out war, it will be facing a long protracted war against the Tausug people in Sabah.”
Fontanilla also said the MNLF would elevate the cases of human rights violations allegedly committed by Malaysian forces against Filipino Muslims in Sabah to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) next week.
He said the MNLF central committee is drafting the petition, and that the elevation of the Sabah conflict to the OIC is MNLF’s top priority because the group has a permanent observer status representing Filipino Muslims in the council.
Fontanilla also condemned the alleged support of President Aquino for the Malaysian government in quashing Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and his royal army, who are now the subject of a massive military operation in Sabah.
“Instead of working for Malaysia, the President should have remained neutral and pursued the promotion and protection of rights of the Filipinos in Sabah in accordance with International laws,” Fontanilla said.
Phl, Malaysia ties strong
Meanwhile, United States-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that the relations between the Philippines and Malaysia would remain strong despite the Sabah crisis.
But CSIS also noted that the Sabah conflict is taking its toll on people-to-people relations between the two Southeast Asian countries due to rising nationalist sentiments.
“Malaysia and Philippines are close partners on economic and security issues and the relationship between the two governments appears largely unaffected by the conflict,” said Gregory Polling of CSIS.
But the fighting between the sultanate’s forces and Malaysian security forces is hurting people-to-people relations between Filipinos and Malaysians, as the crisis continues to spawn nationalistic sentiments on both sides towards the issue.
Polling also said both the Filipino and Malaysian publics have been critical of their government’s handling of the conflict and disapprove of the escalating violence.
“Many groups in the Philippines sympathize with Sultan Kiram’s cause and believe that he has been wronged by history. Many are concerned about the 800,000 Filipinos living in Sabah, many of them poor and undocumented, who could be targeted in the assault or deported,” Polling said.
He also said the public mood worsened when President Aquino urged the sultanate fighters to surrender.
If the conflict in Sabah further worsens, speculations are also high that Malaysian leadership will use this as a ground to postpone the elections.
“This is extremely unlikely because many Malaysians would consider it a mere ruse to delay the polls at a time when the ruling coalition’s popularity has been falling,” Polling said.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/04/01/925588/mnlf-warns-long-war-malaysia
Malaysia to face UN over Sabah Filipino abuses claims
BY DEBRA CHONG
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
APRIL 01, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Outraged Philippine civil society groups have filed human rights violations complaints against Malaysia to the United Nations over serious allegations by returning Filipinos fleeing the month-long armed conflict raging in Sabah’s restive east coast, the Manila Times reported.
The Philippine newspaper reported concerned groups and individuals had lodged reports yesterday with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay (picture), and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, who are both based in Geneva, Switzerland, after failing to move the Aquino administration to exert pressure on Putrajaya.
The activists were reported to have petitioned the two UN agencies to “urgently intervene so that Malaysia will respect the human rights of the Filipinos in Sabah, recognised under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Among the signatories named by the daily were the Concerned Citizens Movement, CenterLaw, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Anakbayan. Individuals who signed the letter included Philippine human rights lawyer Harry Roque, activist nun Sister Mary John Mananzan, whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, journalist Vergel Santos, and political strategist Pastor “Boy” Saycon, who serves as adviser to Jamalul Kiram III, one of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu.
The campaigners also asked the two UN bodies “to express grave concern on the massive and gross human rights violations by Malaysia against Filipinos in Sabah” and to remind Malaysia to “provide effective remedies and compensation to the Filipino victims of the massive and gross human rights violations committed against them by Malaysian state agents”, according to the daily.
Citing the activists, the paper reported Malaysia’s authorities had violated numerous provisions in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on protection against discrimination, life, liberty, security, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest, detention or exile, and right to a fair trial.
The activists were reported to have penned two 11-page letters citing media reports, particularly from the widely-read The Philippine Daily Inquirer, detailing the maltreatment of Filipinos in Sabah starting from February 14 when “suspected Filipino gunmen numbering between 80 and 100 were cornered in Sabah on Borneo Island, triggering the start of the Sabah standoff.”
The Philippine media have been highlighting the growing restlessness among Filipinos at Malaysia’s heavy-handed handling of the Sabah conflict, despite having previously assured it would practise “maximum tolerance” while Manila continues talks with the Kiram clan, a marginalised Muslim faction claiming to be heirs of the 17th-century Sulu sultanate who had been left out of peace negotiations brokered by Putrajaya last year.
Some 5,000 Filipinos have returned to their homeland with tales of human rights abuses that have enraged fellow Philippine citizens and lawmakers since the Sabah crisis began on February, triggered by Sulu rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram’s invasion of the north Borneo state which has been under Malaysian rule for the past 50 years since 1963.
Fierce gunfights have claimed the lives of 62 Sulu militants, eight Malaysian policemen and two soldiers.
Civilians of unknown nationalities have also been reported killed in clashes, caught between the Malaysian security forces hunting down the foreign intruders and spurred thousands of Filipinos to flee Sabah for their homeland out of fear of capture.
The Philippine Senate has demanded its government hold Malaysia accountable for the possible human rights violations on the 800,000-strong Filipino migrant community in Sabah at the hands of local authorities searching for a ragtag band of Sulu militants claiming ownership of the north Borneo state.
The volatile situation in Sabah appears to be election fodder with both the Philippines and Malaysia readying for national polls this year.
Main - Malaysia - Malaysia to face UN over Sabah Filipino abuses claims @ Mon Apr 01 2013
By Perseus Echeminada and Jaime Laude (The Philippine Star) | Updated April 1, 2013
MANILA, Philippines - The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) yesterday warned of a “long, protracted war” against Malaysia if the country will not heed the call of the United Nations for a peaceful resolution of the ongoing Sabah crisis.
MNLF spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla told The STAR that the royal army of the sultanate of Sulu and thousands of Tausugs in Sabah are now waging a guerrilla war against the Malaysian forces over their claim to the disputed territory, and “if Malaysia will not sit on the negotiating table and continue its barbaric all-out war, it will be facing a long protracted war against the Tausug people in Sabah.”
Fontanilla also said the MNLF would elevate the cases of human rights violations allegedly committed by Malaysian forces against Filipino Muslims in Sabah to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) next week.
He said the MNLF central committee is drafting the petition, and that the elevation of the Sabah conflict to the OIC is MNLF’s top priority because the group has a permanent observer status representing Filipino Muslims in the council.
Fontanilla also condemned the alleged support of President Aquino for the Malaysian government in quashing Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and his royal army, who are now the subject of a massive military operation in Sabah.
“Instead of working for Malaysia, the President should have remained neutral and pursued the promotion and protection of rights of the Filipinos in Sabah in accordance with International laws,” Fontanilla said.
Phl, Malaysia ties strong
Meanwhile, United States-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that the relations between the Philippines and Malaysia would remain strong despite the Sabah crisis.
But CSIS also noted that the Sabah conflict is taking its toll on people-to-people relations between the two Southeast Asian countries due to rising nationalist sentiments.
“Malaysia and Philippines are close partners on economic and security issues and the relationship between the two governments appears largely unaffected by the conflict,” said Gregory Polling of CSIS.
But the fighting between the sultanate’s forces and Malaysian security forces is hurting people-to-people relations between Filipinos and Malaysians, as the crisis continues to spawn nationalistic sentiments on both sides towards the issue.
Polling also said both the Filipino and Malaysian publics have been critical of their government’s handling of the conflict and disapprove of the escalating violence.
“Many groups in the Philippines sympathize with Sultan Kiram’s cause and believe that he has been wronged by history. Many are concerned about the 800,000 Filipinos living in Sabah, many of them poor and undocumented, who could be targeted in the assault or deported,” Polling said.
He also said the public mood worsened when President Aquino urged the sultanate fighters to surrender.
If the conflict in Sabah further worsens, speculations are also high that Malaysian leadership will use this as a ground to postpone the elections.
“This is extremely unlikely because many Malaysians would consider it a mere ruse to delay the polls at a time when the ruling coalition’s popularity has been falling,” Polling said.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/04/01/925588/mnlf-warns-long-war-malaysia
Malaysia to face UN over Sabah Filipino abuses claims
BY DEBRA CHONG
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
APRIL 01, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Outraged Philippine civil society groups have filed human rights violations complaints against Malaysia to the United Nations over serious allegations by returning Filipinos fleeing the month-long armed conflict raging in Sabah’s restive east coast, the Manila Times reported.
The Philippine newspaper reported concerned groups and individuals had lodged reports yesterday with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay (picture), and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, who are both based in Geneva, Switzerland, after failing to move the Aquino administration to exert pressure on Putrajaya.
The activists were reported to have petitioned the two UN agencies to “urgently intervene so that Malaysia will respect the human rights of the Filipinos in Sabah, recognised under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Among the signatories named by the daily were the Concerned Citizens Movement, CenterLaw, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Anakbayan. Individuals who signed the letter included Philippine human rights lawyer Harry Roque, activist nun Sister Mary John Mananzan, whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, journalist Vergel Santos, and political strategist Pastor “Boy” Saycon, who serves as adviser to Jamalul Kiram III, one of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu.
The campaigners also asked the two UN bodies “to express grave concern on the massive and gross human rights violations by Malaysia against Filipinos in Sabah” and to remind Malaysia to “provide effective remedies and compensation to the Filipino victims of the massive and gross human rights violations committed against them by Malaysian state agents”, according to the daily.
Citing the activists, the paper reported Malaysia’s authorities had violated numerous provisions in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on protection against discrimination, life, liberty, security, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest, detention or exile, and right to a fair trial.
The activists were reported to have penned two 11-page letters citing media reports, particularly from the widely-read The Philippine Daily Inquirer, detailing the maltreatment of Filipinos in Sabah starting from February 14 when “suspected Filipino gunmen numbering between 80 and 100 were cornered in Sabah on Borneo Island, triggering the start of the Sabah standoff.”
The Philippine media have been highlighting the growing restlessness among Filipinos at Malaysia’s heavy-handed handling of the Sabah conflict, despite having previously assured it would practise “maximum tolerance” while Manila continues talks with the Kiram clan, a marginalised Muslim faction claiming to be heirs of the 17th-century Sulu sultanate who had been left out of peace negotiations brokered by Putrajaya last year.
Some 5,000 Filipinos have returned to their homeland with tales of human rights abuses that have enraged fellow Philippine citizens and lawmakers since the Sabah crisis began on February, triggered by Sulu rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram’s invasion of the north Borneo state which has been under Malaysian rule for the past 50 years since 1963.
Fierce gunfights have claimed the lives of 62 Sulu militants, eight Malaysian policemen and two soldiers.
Civilians of unknown nationalities have also been reported killed in clashes, caught between the Malaysian security forces hunting down the foreign intruders and spurred thousands of Filipinos to flee Sabah for their homeland out of fear of capture.
The Philippine Senate has demanded its government hold Malaysia accountable for the possible human rights violations on the 800,000-strong Filipino migrant community in Sabah at the hands of local authorities searching for a ragtag band of Sulu militants claiming ownership of the north Borneo state.
The volatile situation in Sabah appears to be election fodder with both the Philippines and Malaysia readying for national polls this year.
Main - Malaysia - Malaysia to face UN over Sabah Filipino abuses claims @ Mon Apr 01 2013
