Does airstrikes really end the Tanduo siege ?

By Irfan Danial Leddu

LAHAD DATU : The month-long siege of a small Kampung Tanduo near Lahad Datu is set to end today with military jet fighters reportedly "bombing" the area earlier today.

Sources said, the army has taken over from the police today and would leave the scene soonest possible for Sabah's porous sea border in anticipation of further incursions.

Thousands of Tausugs leave to fight in Sabah

Source
Reinforcements from the Tausug tribe of Sulu numbering up to 10,000 have sailed to Sabah to aid their clansmen who are the followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, an official of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was quoted as saying by a major Manila-based broadsheet.

Majority of the MNLF members, including their chairman Nur Misuari, are members of the Tausug tribe.

“It is impossible to stop them from going to Sabah. We are hurt and many of our people are going to Sabah to help the sultanate,” the paper quoted MNLF Islamic council committee chairman Habib Hashim Mudjahab as saying.

Sabah between a fluid region and a hard stat

By Farish A Noor

Allow me to begin by stating categorically that I am a committed Southeast Asian-ist and a committed ASEAN-ist.

In my work as a lecturer I have constantly reminded my students of the constructed nature of Southeast Asia today, the relative newness of our political borders, and the newness of our nation-states. I have also emphasized the shared overlapping histories of the many diasporas that populate this complex and sometimes confounding archipelago of ours.

Waytha of Hindraf goes hunger strike for Indians

Hindraf’s Leader and Chairperson today has taken another momentuous decision to begin a “HUNGER VIRATHAM” in continuation of Hindraf’s pursuit for justice, dignity and equality for the Indian marginalized and poor. 50 years of oppression and unfulfilled yearnings for a just and dignified life triggered the outpouring of 100,000 Indians onto the KL streets on the 25^th of November 2007. Since then much water has flowed under the bridge, but very little has changed in the lives of the Indian marginalized and poor. 

Pasukan keselamatan lancar serangan di Kpg Tanduo

8.19am Pasukan keselamatan telah melancarkan serangan ke atas kumpulan penceroboh bersenjata di Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu pada jam 7 pagi ini, kata Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dalam satu kenyataan hari ini. 

8:18am: Letupan kedengaran berhampiran Kampung Tandou yang diduduki sekumpulan penceroboh asing, pada kira-kira jam 7:30 pagi ini, menyebabkan 100 penduduk kampung melarikan diri.

Pakatan mahu Parlimen bincang isu keselamatan Sabah

Ahli Parlimen Pokok Sena Datuk Mahfuz Omar meminta agar satu sidang Parlimen khas diadakan secepat mungkin bagi membincangkan tentang isu keselamatan di Sabah.

Selain itu Mahfuz juga berkata, beliau meminta kerajaan membentangkan satu kertas putih berhubung situasi di perairan pantai timur Sabah itu.

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.”