Misuari stakes family's claim to Sabah

Erwin Tulfo, News 5

JOLO, Sulu – In a new twist rendering more bizarre the Sabah standoff, Moro National Liberation Front founding chairman Nur Misuari said his tribe is the “real owner” of the resource-rich territory and this is why he decided to “rescue” the Filipinos being abused by Malaysian forces and to “reclaim the land.”

In an exclusive interview with a News5 team who entered a training camp for thousands of recruits for an “Operation Rescue,” Misuari described as spurious the claim on Sabah re-asserted recently by Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III, over 200 of whose followers sailed to Lahad Datu in Sabah on Feb. 12. Their presence there triggered a standoff that deteriorated into open warfare since March 1 and killed over 60 Filipinos, with thousands more caught in the crossfire.

In the News5 interview, Misuari asserted “we are the true owners of Sabah,” and this is why he named the task force that will “rescue” the abused Filipinos in Sabah after his ancestor Panglima Mahabasser Elidji, whom he claimed was the one who helped the Sultan of Brunei quell a revolt in 1658. Because of that help, the sultan of Brunei gave Sabah over to Panglima’s group, Misuari said.

He said this explains why all around Sabah and Sarawak, another resource-rich territory under the Malaysian federation, many “people there are related to me.”

Malaysia, he stressed, “is a stranger, a complete stranger” to Sabah, having simply benefited illegally when the British government gave it Sabah when the federation was created, even though it was just under lease by an Austrian merchant and a British trading firm.

In the camp in Sulu, the MNLF showed recruits being trained by veteran combat fighters "to rescue" thousands of Filipinos allegedly being abused by Malaysian security forces in Sabah.

The operation rescue, if true, is laden with irony, as it was Malaysia that in the late sixties and on to the seventies that gave Misuari safe haven while he was fighting the Marcos regime, as MNLF men trained in Sabah. It was said Malaysia supported Misuari then in retaliation for Marcos’s hatching a botched plan to invade Sabah.

Misuari claimed they were ready to "sustain a war for a hundred years" if necessary.
Misuari, founder of the original Moro insurgent force in the 1960s, claimed 1,000 of their men have already snuck into Sabah where a standoff began February 12 between Malaysian forces and followers of the Sulu sultanate out to "reclaim" ancient territory.

Misuari stressed that their troops are not allied with the Royal Sultanate Army but have as their main mission the "rescue" of Filipinos allegedly being "abused" by Malaysia. Over 60 Filipinos have died in the standoff, and thousands others are feared caught in the crackdown.

Separate from Misuari's statements, members of the self-styled "Royal Security Force of the Sulu Sultanate" who remain holed up in Lahad Datu, Sabah, claim to have received additional reinforcements from sympathizers in the Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas.

Abraham Idjirani, sultanate spokesman and secretary general, claimed in a phone interview that as of Tuesday, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and his Royal Security Force are 400-strong, after dwindling to just over 160 in the face of heavy Malaysian assault.

Idjirani's claims could not be independently verified, and Philippine military officials have said that naval forces are in place to block any such attempts to reinforce the sultanate's followers in Sabah.

At the MNLF camp, trainees were being instructed on the use of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan cautioned Misuari against any rash actions, while a military spokesman warned that the supposed rescue plans, if carried out, would go against Philippine policies on the Sabah standoff. 

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/59100/exclusive--misuari-stakes-familys-claim-to-sabah