ZAMBOANGA CITY: Malaysian authorities have imposed a food blockade on hundreds of followers of the sultan of Sulu who refuse to leave Sabah, an official of the sultanate said yesterday.
Abraham Idjirani, Secretary General of the sultanate, decried the blockade as a violation of the rights of the members of the Sultanate Royal Army led by Raja Muda Abimuddin Kiram, who have been locked in a standoff with Malaysian forces for nearly a week in the coastal town of Lahad Datu in Sabah.
Idjirani said Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III would file a complaint with an international human rights organisation to protest the latest action of Malaysia. The sultanate claims much of Sabah as ancestral land, and continues to receive rent from the Malaysian government.
“We have been stressing that our people went there in peace, Sabah being our homeland,” Idjirani said after the sultanate was informed yesterday that Malaysian authorities had prevented food supplies from being brought to Kiram’s followers.
This developed as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and an aunt of President Aquino denied trying to sabotage the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf).
Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, the President’s aunt, called the report “irresponsible” and said she is closer to the Milf than to Misuari. MNLF spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla said the report is “a big lie.”
“Only a child would peddle such a tale. How can the MNLF and former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales conspire to sabotage the government?” Fontanilla said.
He claimed Gonzales had tried to have Misuari replaced as MNLF chairman. Gonzales was also instrumental in the arrest and imprisonment of Misuari in Malaysia, Fontanilla alleged.
He added that the MNLF is the victim of a conspiracy among some government officials, the MILF and Malaysia to stop the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement signed by Misuari with the Ramos administration.
MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari, however, admitted that members of his group were among those holed up in Sabah.
Misuari himself did not comment directly about the reported attempt to sabotage the peace process with the Milf, which broke away from the MNLF.
Instead, he said yesterday that he had appealed to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak not to use force on the group in Lahad Datu. “We do not want bloodshed and we want to settle the issue of Sabah peacefully,” Misuari said. “If the Malaysians will harm our brothers, then we will get involved. They are our relatives and brothers in arms.”
“We do not want a repeat of the Jabidah massacre,” Misuari said.
He was referring to the reported killing by the military of a Muslim unit called Jabidah in 1967, during Ferdinand Marcos’ term, when the Muslims refused to be sent to Sabah to foment unrest and assert the Philippines’ claim.
The Philippine Star
