Malaysia beefs up security as Borneo toll rises

Source: AFP

Jamalul Kiram III, a self-proclaimed sultan, seen praying in Manila, on
March 3, 2013. Followers of the 74-year-old Islamic leader say
gunmen are ready to die to defend his claim to Sabah, which
was once controlled by the now-defunct sultanate.

Malaysia vowed to beef up security Monday in an eastern state where at least 26 people have been reported killed after a bizarre invasion by Philippine followers of a self-styled sultan.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is under pressure over Malaysia's worst security crisis in years, has authorised a "doubling" of police and armed forces deployed in the tense state of Sabah on Borneo island.

"An additional two army battalions have been dispatched to Sabah," Najib, who has vowed to root out the intruders, was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Did the police walk into a trap in Semporna?

Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar says
his men may have been lured in by decoys
and fired upon as they entered the water village.

Source

TAWAU: Police searching for a group of gunmen in Kampung Sri Jaya in the Simunul area in Semporna may have walked into a trap that was set for them.

According to sources, the gunmen appeared ready for the police raid and opened fire as the police were on the narrow single-plank walkways linking the various houses on stilts.

Six policemen, including an officer, and six unidentified gunmen were killed during the firefight that occurred around 7pm yesterday.

Police have encircled the village, one of many that are perched on stilts over the sea, to track down remaining gunmen.

Defiant Sulu Sultan mocks calls to surrender

Sultan Jamalul Kiram III says his soldiers will not bow to either
Malaysia or to Philippines President Benigno Aquino.

KOTA KINABALU: The only man with the power to stop more bloodshed in a remote village in Lahad Datu, Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III, has mocked the idea of surrender.

For him and his armed followers, who are occupying a seaside village called Kg Tanduo, about 160km from Lahad Datu town, averting a looming bloody showdown is dependent on Malaysia acknowledging Sabah as part of the Sulu sultanate and its handover to the Philippines.

It is unlikely that he will get his wish. If anything, it is a death warrant for the remaining 224 men dug in at Kg Tanduo and surrounded by heavily armed Malaysian security forces.

Villagers beat gunman to death

A reporter on his way to an assignment in Kampung
Nihak Nihak about 30 kilometres from Semporna
saw the dead body of an armed man.

SEMPORNA: A man armed with a M16 rifle, believed to have been involved in an ambush which claimed the lives of five policemen at Kampung Sri Jaya, Siminul, Semporna last night, was beaten to death by a group of Kampung Senallang Lama villagers here.

The man has yet to be identified.

In the 7 am incident this morning, a big-sized man in his 50s, dressed in black and armed with a M16 rifle climbed down a hill and let off a few shots in the direction of the village.

Villager Abdul Hani Samaullah, 44, told Bernama that the man pierced the early morning calm by shouting,” I’m the one who shot the police last night.”

5 cops. 2 gunmen killed in Semporna ambush

LAHAD DATU, March 3 (Bernama) -- Five policemen, one of them an officer, were killed in an ambush by a group of armed men, two of whom were also killed, in Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul, Semporna, Sabah, last night.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the incident occurred at 8 pm at the water village.

The policemen, from the Semporna District Police Headquarters, had been ordered to carry out an investigation at the village following a tip-off that there was a group of armed men there, he told a news conference here today.

5 anggota polis terbunuh di Semporna, 2 penjenayah ditembak mati: KPN

LAHAD DATU: Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Ismail Omar mengesahkan lima anggota polis terbunuh dalam kejadian tembakan di Semporna dan dua penjenayah ditembak mati ketika serbuan malam tadi. 

Sementara itu, polis turut menahan tiga penceroboh bersenjata dari Selatan Filipina di Kampung Tanduo, semalam ketika cuba keluar daripada kepungan pihak berkuasa.

Cop killed in Semporna, another injured in gunfight with militants

Special police force guard the area about 3km away from the
location where armed men are holding off, outside
Lahad Datu February 19, 2013. — Reuters file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — A policeman was killed and another injured in a shootout with armed militants in Kampung Selamat, Semporna, last night after police said two others were wounded in a gunfight in nearby Pulau Simunul, three weeks after Filipino militants made an incursion into Sabah.

These incidents around Semporna are 150km away from Lahad Datu where there is still a tense standoff between Malaysian security forces and Filipino militants a day after 14 people were killed in a shootout.

State news agency Bernama reported that the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Ismail Omar, confirmed the incident but refused to comment further.

STAR adds ‘Kita Ambil Balik’ to ‘Ini Kali Lah’

The new slogan is aimed at helping the party take
back what was taken away from Sabahans.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: With its conviction building that its time has come, Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (STAR) has added to its popular slogan, “Ini Kali Lah” the additional phrase “Kita Ambil Balik” (We Shall Take Back) ahead of the coming general election.

STAR Sabah operation room director, Saiman Sandah, in a statement here today said, the slogan “Ini Kali Lah, Kita Ambil Balik” will help pave the way for STAR to lead in taking back what was taken away from the state and Sabahans.

He said the new slogan has already started to be used by STAR leaders at the party’s functions including at a closed-door briefings for potential candidates at the Ming Garden Hotel here over the weekend.

Philippines press: Stand-off is Malaysia’s ‘karma’

The whole saga is a "karma" on Malaysia for its clandestine
role in supporting the Muslim Sulu insurgence against Manila
government in southern Mindanao, says a writer.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Philippines dailies are having a field day reporting on the ‘invasion’ Sabah’s east-coast town of Lahad Datu by men claiming to be members of the “Royal Sulu Sultanate army”.

One writer by the name of Ramon Tulfo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently wrote that the whole saga was a “karma” on Malaysia for its clandestine role in supporting the Muslim Sulu insurgence against Manila government in southern Mindanao in the 1970s and 1980s.

“When the (Philippines) government was fighting the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) in the 1970s through the 1980s, Malaysia was secretly supporting the rebellion in the South. Weapons coming from Libya and other Middle East countries passed through Malaysia on their way to the MNLF.

Lahad Datu invasion: The real story?

The sultanate has little resources at its disposal to run
the 'government' of Sulu. Thus a fresh deal with
Malaysia will help it keep the ball rolling.

The Lahad Datu “invasion” is not merely about a group of armed men intruding into Sabah. After weeks of a tense standoff between the “occupiers” and Malaysian security forces, a clearer picture has emerged.

It appears that the heavily armed group wants to turn the “occupation” into an international issue, specifically to draw attention to its plea for an independent Sulu sultanate.

But the sultanate is financially not in good shape and hence, the group turned its attention to Sabah where it claimed the Sulu sultan has “rented out” the state to Malaysia.

The Sulu sultan told AFP on Feb 27 that the Malaysian government is paying the sultanate RM5,300 yearly in exchange for agreeing to let Sabah become a Malaysian state.