KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Malaysian security forces
have surrounded about 100 armed men believed to be from a
breakaway rebel faction in the southern Philippines, Malaysian
police and a government official said on Thursday, but a
Philippine official said they were unarmed Filipinos who had
been promised land.
The standoff in Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state threatened to
stir tension between the Southeast Asian neighbours whose ties
have been periodically frayed by security and migration problems
caused by a porous sea border.
Malaysian police said in a statement that the situation was
“under control”, but did not say whether the men had agreed with
a request to surrender.
“We are dealing with 100 armed foreigners from the southern
Philippines. The army and the police have cordoned off the place
where these foreigners are waiting,” a high-ranking Malaysian
government source with direct knowledge of the situation told
Reuters.
He said the gunmen were suspected to be from a faction
unhappy with the Philippines’ recent peace deal with the main
Muslim rebel group in southern Mindanao island.
A senior Philippine military official dismissed the
Malaysian account of the group, saying they were unarmed
Filipinos who had been promised land in Sabah.
He said a meeting over the land claim had attracted a large
crowd and drawn the attention of Malaysian authorities.
“We know that these people arrived there five days ago and
most of them are from nearby islands,” the official, who asked
not to be identified, said.
“Some of them were already residents in Sabah for a long
time and they normally cross the border without any problem.”
The number of illegal Muslim immigrants from the
impoverished southern Philippines has surged in recent decades,
stirring social tensions with indigenous Christian inhabitants
in Sabah.
The Philippine government signed a landmark peace deal with
Muslim rebels late last year to end a 40-year conflict in the
south, but some factions have voiced opposition.
“Since Malaysia brokered the deal, followers from the
Misuari Breakaway Group have decided to stir up some trouble and
create fireworks in Sabah,” the senior Malaysian official said,
referring to a faction within the MNLF rebel group.
In 2000, a group of militants from the southern Philippines
kidnapped 21 tourists from the Sabah diving resort of Sipadan.
In 1985, 11 people were killed when gunmen believed to be from
the southern Philippines entered Lahad Datu in Sabah, shooting
at random before robbing the local branch of Standard Chartered
Bank.
(Reporting By Siva Sithraputhran and Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala
Lumpur; Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and
Nick Macfie)
