PH calls for peaceful solution to Sabah stand-off | Inquirer Global Nation

PH calls for peaceful solution to Sabah stand-off  | Inquirer Global Nation
Agence France-Presse, February 16th, 2013

LAHAD DATU, Malaysia—The Philippines on Saturday called for a peaceful resolution to a tense stand-off between Malaysian forces and a group of gunmen claiming to be followers of the heir of a former Borneo sultan.

The group, estimated at 200 with dozens believed to be armed, landed by boat near the Borneo town of Lahad Datu in  Sabah from the neighboring southern Philippines on Tuesday.
Police say the group has declared itself followers of a former Mindanao-based Islamic sultanate that once controlled parts of Borneo, including the standoff site, and is refusing to leave Sabah.

President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte said Saturday the safety of the Filipinos was the government’s main concern as Malaysian armed forces and police have locked down the area.

“The primary concern now is their safety and to resolve the incident peacefully,” Valte said in a radio interview in Manila.

She said the Philippines had received assurance from Malaysia that the government would encourage the group, which Manila has yet to identify, to leave the area peacefully.

Sabah police chief Hamza Taib was quoted by local dailies as saying police were in negotiations with the group and expected the stand-off to be resolved “very soon with the group returning to their home country.”

Malaysian police have set up a series of road blocks along the route leading from Lahad Datu through palm oil plantations to the remote village where the gunmen are. Marine police were also patrolling the sea.

An Agence France-Presse photographer was denied access some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the stand-off site.

The group involved in the impasse has claimed to be adherents of the former Sulu sultanate, a regional power center until its demise a century ago.

A Philippine military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP Friday the group was demanding an increase in the nominal amount Malaysia pays, under a long-standing agreement, to the heirs of the sultanate for possession of Sabah.

Much of the eastern part of Sabah is being claimed by the Philippines as part of the Sultanate of Sulu that was leased to the British North Borneo Company in 1878. However, Great Britain instead of returning Sabah to the sultanate transferred it to Malaysia in 1963.

Malaysia continues to pay “cession money” to the heirs of the sultan of Sulu. With INQUIRER.net