From the Business Mirror (Jan 26): Sulu sultan’s spokesman: Include Pinoys in Sabah in GRP-MILF peace deal
THE spokesman of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu said the peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must consider the case of Filipinos in Sabah, whom he claims are taking the brunt of a crackdown by the Malaysian government.
Sulu Sultanate Spokesman Abraham Idjirani also appealed to the Philippine government to probe the alleged rounding-up and maltreatment of Filipinos as a crackdown on undocumented migrants began in Malaysia mid-January.
The government is a party to the peace talks with the MILF, which is being facilitated by Malaysia.
On Saturday the government signed the Annex on Normalization with the MILF in Malaysia in the presence of a Malaysian official that brought much closer to the forging of a peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
Idjirani, however, said the Sultanate is not against the peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
Idjirani said members of the Sultanate will remain in Sabah despite the crackdown. Still, he voiced his concern for the other Filipinos who have no one to turn to.
The Sultanate said the government cannot “smilingly” deal with Malaysia as the facilitator of its talks with the MILF while Filipinos are being hunted like wild animals, rounded up and abused by the Malaysian government.
Followers of the Sultanate and Malaysian forces clashed last year after members of the Sultanate went back to Sabah, which they claimed they owned.
Last week Datu Esmail Kiram II asked the United Nations “to take the necessary preferential attentions for a peaceful resolution of the conflict to avoid further bloodshed, which we do not like to happen again.”
“How can Malaysia continue to occupy, exploit and utilize North Borneo’s [Sabah’s] natural wealth and resources, such as oil, which does not belong to her by historic right and legal title?” he said.
The leader of the Sultanate also appealed to the Organization of Islamic Conference to help in the peaceful resolution of their claim over Sabah.
“In the pursuit of our historic rights and legal claims, we urge the Philippine government to support the Sultanate of Sulu in its claim over North Borneo [Sabah] by historic and moral obligations,” Kiram II also said.