Sabah State Police Commissioner Hamza Taib (third right) leaves after a meeting at the base at a village of Sahabat 16, near Lahad Datu, on the Malaysian island of Borneo yesterday.
DPA/Kuala Lumpur/Manila
Malaysia was preparing to deport around 100 Filipinos who made their way into the country last week to reclaim land, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday.
“We are now in the process of deporting them in a peaceful, humane manner, without any threat or risking any one’s life,” Hishammuddin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. He did not say when the deportation would start. In Manila, the Philippine sultan who claimed to have dispatched the group to reclaim the eastern state of Sabah, meanwhile vowed there would be no retreat in the mission but called against bloodshed to resolve the standoff. The Filipinos arrived in the remote town of Lahad Datu, 1,600 kilometres east of Kuala Lumpur. Sabah police chief Hamza Taib yesterday visited their encampment, which has been cordoned off by police.
Jamalul Kiram III, sultan of the Philippine island-province of Sulu, said his brother crown prince Rajah Mudah Abimuddin Kiram led the Filipinos in travelling to Sabah and will “stay put” until Malaysia agrees to negotiate with the Philippines about the state.
“I don’t want bloodshed but we have been suffering for a long time so we have to assert our sovereignty over Sabah,” he said in a telephone interview.
“There will be no turning back for us. We have already submitted ourselves to the Almighty for whatever will happen.”
Malaysia claims that it has sovereignty over Sabah, which is about an hour away by motorboat from the strife-torn southern Philippine province of Sulu.
But in an arrangement between British colonial authorities and the Sultan of Sulu, Malaysia pays a token amount to the sultanate each year for the “rental” of Sabah.
At the height of the conflict between the Philippine government and rebels, thousands of Filipino Muslims sought refuge in Sabah and became permanent residents there. Until today Filipinos from the south sail to Sabah at will, even without the proper travel documents.
