The Sulu ‘general’ whom the security forces killed few days ago is believed to be former Moro National Liberal Front (MNLF) commander Haji Musa, said Sabah police commissioner Hamza Taib.
“We believe it’s him, we had found his clothes, but when he was shot, he was not wearing uniform,” he told a press conference at Felda Sahabat Beach Resort, Lahat Datu today.
He was responding to a question on whether one the 22 corpses of the self-styled ‘Sulu royal army’ members, currently placed at the Tawau and Lahat Datu hospitals for post-mortem, has been identified as Haji Musa.
However, Hamza was unable to give further confirmation as more evidence is needed to conclude this matter.
“When the corpses were recovered from Tanjung Batu, I had seen the status of the dead body, but I can’t confirm positively.
“Because when I would like to confirm it positively, I must have solid evidence, such as documentation and an identity card,” he added.
He said that the Forensics Department had yet to reply to him over this matter.
Lee Long Hui
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was not enemies with the Malaysian government and has no reason to aid the Sulu incursion in Sabah, the group’s chairman Muslimin Sema repeated today.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a report by the Philippine Star, Muslimin, who is also the vice-mayor of Cotabato City in the Philippines, said reports of the MNLF’s alleged links to the Sulu incursion were likely part of a campaign to destroy the group.
ReplyDelete“The report is not true and I strongly say it’s a figment of imagination of whoever is the source.
ReplyDelete“I beg to say that the informants or personalities spreading this wrong information may be promoting an agenda to destroy the MNLF. Well, I say you fail,” he was quoted as saying.
ReplyDeleteMuslimin had last week issued a similar denial after reports that the MNLF’s Malaysia-trained fighters were being dispatched as reinforcements to the Sulu fighters in Sabah.
ReplyDeleteThe reports were also fuelled by talk of past meetings between Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Nur Misuari, the MNLF’s founder and veteran leader. According to the allegations, the incursion was linked to a claimed opposition campaign to award autonomy to Sabah should it win in Election 2013.
ReplyDelete“We (MNLF) do not support with what is happening in Sabah (the intrusion and the violent acts of the terrorists). We disapprove (of) it. The incidents in Sabah are done to drive a wedge between our peoples.
ReplyDelete“The incidents are also to break the bond between Sabah and the southern Philippines, as well as between Malaysia and Philippines. They want to destroy the bond (between the two peoples),” Muslimin had said in an exclusive interview with national news agency Bernama via telephone from Manila.
ReplyDeleteAnwar was also forced to disprove the claims, and reportedly told a ceramah that he had nothing to do with the Sulu Sultanate and the masterminds behind the siege on Sabah.
ReplyDeletePemimpin Barisan Pembebasan Kebangsaan Moro (MNLF), Nur Misuari berkata adalah mustahil ahli MNLF terlibat menyertai kumpulan bersenjata yang mendakwa sebagai Tentera Diraja Kesultanan Sulu yang berada di Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu, Sabah.
ReplyDeleteBagaimanapun, dia berkata lelaki bersenjata itu melakukan pencerobohan tanpa kebenaran atau pengetahuan kumpulan tersebut.
ReplyDeleteMisuari berkata, apabila dia bertanya kepada beberapa ‘saudaranya’ sama ada benar bahawa MNLF terlibat dengan kumpulan bersenjata itu, jawapannya adalah mereka mungkin turut serta kerana menganggap diri mereka sebagai tentera dan pasukan keselamatan Kesultanan Sulu.
ReplyDelete“Ini bermaksud, apabila MNLF pergi berperang, mereka akan bersama kita tetapi apabila Kesultanan Sulu memulakan misi pencerobohan ke Sabah, mereka juga akan pergi tetapi tanpa kebenaran kami,” kata Misuari dalam satu temu bual menerusi telefon pada Ahad.
ReplyDeleteMisuari berkata, dia masih lagi berusaha untuk mengetahui sama ada salah seorang bekas komander MNLF antara lelaki bersenjata yang dibunuh oleh anggota keselamatan di Sabah.
ReplyDeleteKetua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Ismail Omar pada Jumaat berkata, salah seorang daripada 31 lelaki bersenjata yang terbunuh merupakan ketua kumpulan penceroboh itu.
ReplyDeleteDifahamkan, lelaki tersebut merupakan bekas komander yang dikenali sebagai Haji Musa.
ReplyDeleteDia merupakan bekas jeneral tentera Filipina yang turut berkhidmat di Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteMisuari membidas Presiden Filipina Benigno Aquino kerana mendakwa pihak luar mungkin terlibat dalam pencerobohan itu dengan memberitahu tidak ada bukti mengenai dakwaan tersebut.
ReplyDeleteMengenai dakwaan sama ada dia bertemu dengan mana-mana pemimpin pembangkang Malaysia, dia berkata telah bertemu dengan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim di Jakarta beberapa bulan lalu.
ReplyDeleteDia meminta dipertemukan dengan Anwar untuk mengadu mengenai layanan Malaysia terhadap pendatang asing Selatan Filipina yang ditahan sambil memberitahu tiada perkara lain dibincangkan.
ReplyDelete“Dia (Anwar) hanyalah satu-satu rakan rapat yang saya kenal selepas saya ditahan di perairan Sabah,” katanya.
ReplyDeleteBekas pemimpin pemberontak itu ditahan di Sabah pada 2001 dan diserahkan kembali ke Filipina atas permintaan negaranya
Members of a major Philippine Muslim rebel force who were meant to have disarmed in the 1990s as part of a peace pact are involved in deadly battles in Malaysia, the group's leader said
ReplyDeleteNur Misuari, who founded the Moro National Liberation Front in the late 1960s, confirmed "freedom fighters" from his group were part of the militia sent by a self-proclaimed sultan to claim the Malaysian state of Sabah.
ReplyDeleteMisuari made the comments while visiting Jamalul Kiram III, the self-anointed Sultan of Sulu, who sent between 100 and 300 men from the southern Philippines to Sabah on February 12 to press his ownership claim.
ReplyDeleteThe MNLF "freedom fighters" earnt their battle experience during decades of armed struggle against the Philippine government that cost tens of thousands of lives.
ReplyDeleteThe MNLF had fought for an independent state in the southern Philippines, while also claiming Sabah state as part of their ancestral homeland.
ReplyDeleteThe group signed a peace pact with the Philippine government in 1996 which created a Muslim autonomous region in the south, and set aside the claim over Sabah. The MNLF peace pact led to a less-compromising splinter group, the Moro Islamic Liberation front, continuing the battle for independence.
ReplyDeleteThe MILF is now close to signing a final peace deal with the government, which ignores the Sabah claim completely and would lead to the MNLF losing political influence in the southern Philippines.
ReplyDeleteObservers have speculated MNLF members may have helped launch the Malaysia offensive because they feared they were losing power.
ReplyDeleteLahad Datu: MNLF strongly condemns violent acts by Sulu invaders
ReplyDeleteThe Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) strongly condemns the violent acts committed by Sulu terrorists in Lahad Datu and Semporna, said its chairman Muslimin Sema.
Muslimin, who was appointed chairman in 2008, also stated that Nur Misuari was just an ordinary member of the central committee.
Muslimin said MNLF considered Sabahans and Malaysians their brothers.
Lahad Datu: MNLF strongly condemns violent acts by Sulu invaders
ReplyDelete“We do not support what is happening in Sabah. The incidents in Sabah were done to drive a wedge between our peoples,” he said by phone from Manila.
On Misuari’s statement recently that the MNLF was ready to send armed fighters to Sabah to help the Sulu terrorists, Muslimin described it as irresponsible.
Lahad Datu: MNLF strongly condemns violent acts by Sulu invaders
ReplyDelete“Sabah and Malaysia are not our enemies,” he said.
He added that investigations by central committee members in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu have found that no regular members of MNLF were involved in the Sabah intrusion
Diorang ni datang tuk buat hal.
ReplyDeleteMore bodies of Sulu gunmen are believed to be buried in Kampung Tanduo than previously discovered.
ReplyDeleteSabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said he had new information that there were up to 15 bodies buried there.
ReplyDeleteNine bodies of the gunmen were initially discovered in a hole by security forces after a strike on the village on March 6 where the armed intruders had been holed up since Feb 9.
ReplyDeleteHamza also confirmed that the body of Haji Musa, a general of the Sulu group led by Azzimudie Kiram, was recovered from Kampung Tanjung Batu.
ReplyDeleteA permanent base will soon be set up at Lahad Datu, in Sabah, to monitor the situation after Ops Daulat ends, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.
ReplyDeleteHe said the base will be taken over by the Malaysian Enforcement Maritime Agency (MMEA), National Security Council (NSC), and the police once the ongoing operation has ended.
ReplyDeleteHe also warned the Philippines media not to produce conflicting reports of the real situation on the ground of the ongoing conflict in Sabah.
ReplyDeleteMalaysian security forces fully secured ground zero at Kampung Tanduo and raised the Malaysian flag there as the guns fell silent after a week of heavy bombardment and sporadic fire fights.
ReplyDeleteThe Defence Ministry has denied reports that Filipinos in Sabah were being mistreated and shot at by security forces in search of Sulu terrorists in Lahad Datu.
ReplyDeleteDr Ahmad Zahid said the security forces had followed standard operating procedures when conducting Ops Daulat to flush out armed militants.
ReplyDeleteThe terror groups that intruded into Sabah and killed Malaysian policemen could face murder charges, says Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Nazri added that the decision to do this, and if so, what charge the gunmen would face, would be made by the Public Prosecutor.
ReplyDeleteWhen asked how the Sulu gunmen would be treated, he said if it was a war, the Geneva Convention would come into play.
ReplyDelete“However, the incident is an intrusion on the country’s sovereignty, not a war,” he said.
ReplyDeleteUnder Section 302 of the Penal Code- murder will face the mandatory death penalty.
ReplyDeleteucapan takziah kepada keluarga mangsa yang gugur dalam pertempuran dengan pengganas2 Sulu ini
ReplyDeletesemoga keselamatan rakyat Sabah terjamin....nampaknya, belum ada tanda-tanda militant Sulu ini mahu menyerah diri
ReplyDeletewalau bagaimanapun, marilah kita sebagai rakyat Sabah bersatu mempertahankan kedaulatan negeri ini dari dirampas oleh pengganas2 Sulu ini
ReplyDeleteWe ask the Malaysian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect and provide for the safety and well-being of civilians caught in the conflict zone, bearing in mind that these involve the elderly, women and children.
ReplyDeleteThey should be provided with safe passage to non-conflict zones and be provided with access to adequate food, shelter, medical assistance and protection.
ReplyDelete