Saturday, April 05, 2014 6:44:03 AM
MNLF: Don’t drag us into kidnapping incident
FMT Staff | April 4, 2014
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Meanwhile the Western Mindanao Command centre said their assets
were on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
---
UPDATED
[ photo NUR MISUARI ]
KOTA KINABALU: The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has described attempts to link their guerillas to the kidnapping of a China tourist in Semporna on Wednesday as “black propaganda”.
MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza said they were not hostile.
He said in the past, MNLF have been instrumental in negotiating the release of several hostages in kidnapping incidents in Sulu, including a tourist who was kidnapped in Sipadan, Sabah a few years ago.
MNLF is helmed by Nur Misuari. Its breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was involved in the recent inking of a peace pact with Manila. MNLF was left out.
MNLF, MILF and Abu Sayyaf are islamic groups marauding in Mindanao.
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) pact signed on March 27 before Prime Minister Najib Razak and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III while bringing to an end a decades-long civil unrest in Mindanao which had led to tens and thousands of Sulus seeking asylum in Sabah creating what has now become Umno’s “fixed deposit”, is being weighed in with skepticism by political observers on both sides.
Sabah and the Sulu sultanate have a long history. The Sulu sultanate believes it ‘owns’ North Borneo, Sabah’s former name and that the land was only leased to Malaysia.
Last February the armed Sulus claiming to be soldiers of the Royal Sulu Army ‘invaded’ Kpg Tanduo and staked their claim to the land. Their argument was that Malaysia was still paying the sultanate a lease fee.
Many have alleged that Nur Misuari had stoked this Sulu incursion at the behest of political leaders in Kuala Lumpur who were desperate to harness the Malay votes and rev up patriotism and Islamic brotherhood.
But Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt Gen Rustico Guerrero told Philstar.com that the MNLF were “peace-loving people”.
Guerrero said the MNLF members’ only objective was to help the Sultanate of Sulu reclaim Sabah, which they believe is “illegally” occupied by Malaysia.
Meanwhile earlier this afternoon Philippines said that that the abductors were suspected to be members of the Abu Sayayaf Group led by a former MNLF leader Murphy Ambang Ladia, also known as Haji Gulam.
Ladia is a native of the Pandami Island in Sulu, according to Malacanang’s presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
No official report yet
On Wednesday’s kidnapping, Reuters News Agency meanwhile reported that the Western Mindanao Command centre had placed all its naval assets on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
Command Centre spokesperson Capt Rowena Muyuela said they still have no information on whether the suspects were Filipinos.
“We are still to receive official reports regarding that,” Muyuela said.
She added that they are also coordinating with the Mindanao police to intensify their security arrangements.
On Wednesday seven armed men stormed Singgahmata Reef Resort in Semporna and kidnapped 29-year-old Gao Hua Yuan, from China and a Filipina worker aged 40 years.
The attack comes at a time when Malaysia’s image has been tarnished in China by negative publicity over its handling of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese nationals.
Sabah has become a popular tourist destination for Chinese in recent years, but has faced security problems due to its proximity to the restive southern Philippines.
Last November, 58-year-old Taiwanese national Chang An Wei, was abducted and her husband Hsu Li-min was killed during an attack on a holiday resort on Pom Pom Island.
Chang was release in December, 36 days after she was kidnapped, after a ransom was paid to the Abu Sayyaf, according to reports.
The kidnapping occured in Semporna which is a district under the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).
Esscom and Esszone was established in April last year following the Sulu incursion.
http://www.fmtborneoplus.com/category/nation/2014/04/04/mnlf-dont-drag-us-into-kidnapping-incident/
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Sultanate of Sulu .. two bits ..
The Sultanate of Sulu Dar al-Islam (Jawi: [...] (Arabic: [...] was an Islamic Tausug state that ruled over many of the islands of the Sulu Sea, parts of Mindanao and certain portions of present-day Sabah (then North Borneo).
The sultanate was founded in 17 November 1405. by a Johore-born Arab explorer and religious scholar Sayyid Abu Bakr Abirin after he settled in Banua Buansa Ummah (ummah is an Arabic term for "community"), Sulu. After the marriage of Abu Bakr and local dayang-dayang (princess) Paramisuli, he founded the sultanate and assumed the title Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim.
At its peak, it stretched over the islands that bordered the western peninsula of Mindanao in the east to Palawan in the north. It also covers the area in northeastern side of Borneo, stretching from Kimanis Bay in Sabah which is also overlap with the boundaries of the Bruneian Sultanate, to Tepian Durian in now Kalimantan.
[...]
Map showing the extent of the Sultanate of Sulu in 1822. Date: 18 August 2013, 12:25:47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Sulu
FMT Staff | April 4, 2014
---
Meanwhile the Western Mindanao Command centre said their assets
were on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
---
UPDATED
[ photo NUR MISUARI ]
KOTA KINABALU: The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has described attempts to link their guerillas to the kidnapping of a China tourist in Semporna on Wednesday as “black propaganda”.
MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza said they were not hostile.
He said in the past, MNLF have been instrumental in negotiating the release of several hostages in kidnapping incidents in Sulu, including a tourist who was kidnapped in Sipadan, Sabah a few years ago.
MNLF is helmed by Nur Misuari. Its breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was involved in the recent inking of a peace pact with Manila. MNLF was left out.
MNLF, MILF and Abu Sayyaf are islamic groups marauding in Mindanao.
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) pact signed on March 27 before Prime Minister Najib Razak and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III while bringing to an end a decades-long civil unrest in Mindanao which had led to tens and thousands of Sulus seeking asylum in Sabah creating what has now become Umno’s “fixed deposit”, is being weighed in with skepticism by political observers on both sides.
Sabah and the Sulu sultanate have a long history. The Sulu sultanate believes it ‘owns’ North Borneo, Sabah’s former name and that the land was only leased to Malaysia.
Last February the armed Sulus claiming to be soldiers of the Royal Sulu Army ‘invaded’ Kpg Tanduo and staked their claim to the land. Their argument was that Malaysia was still paying the sultanate a lease fee.
Many have alleged that Nur Misuari had stoked this Sulu incursion at the behest of political leaders in Kuala Lumpur who were desperate to harness the Malay votes and rev up patriotism and Islamic brotherhood.
But Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt Gen Rustico Guerrero told Philstar.com that the MNLF were “peace-loving people”.
Guerrero said the MNLF members’ only objective was to help the Sultanate of Sulu reclaim Sabah, which they believe is “illegally” occupied by Malaysia.
Meanwhile earlier this afternoon Philippines said that that the abductors were suspected to be members of the Abu Sayayaf Group led by a former MNLF leader Murphy Ambang Ladia, also known as Haji Gulam.
Ladia is a native of the Pandami Island in Sulu, according to Malacanang’s presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
No official report yet
On Wednesday’s kidnapping, Reuters News Agency meanwhile reported that the Western Mindanao Command centre had placed all its naval assets on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
Command Centre spokesperson Capt Rowena Muyuela said they still have no information on whether the suspects were Filipinos.
“We are still to receive official reports regarding that,” Muyuela said.
She added that they are also coordinating with the Mindanao police to intensify their security arrangements.
On Wednesday seven armed men stormed Singgahmata Reef Resort in Semporna and kidnapped 29-year-old Gao Hua Yuan, from China and a Filipina worker aged 40 years.
The attack comes at a time when Malaysia’s image has been tarnished in China by negative publicity over its handling of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese nationals.
Sabah has become a popular tourist destination for Chinese in recent years, but has faced security problems due to its proximity to the restive southern Philippines.
Last November, 58-year-old Taiwanese national Chang An Wei, was abducted and her husband Hsu Li-min was killed during an attack on a holiday resort on Pom Pom Island.
Chang was release in December, 36 days after she was kidnapped, after a ransom was paid to the Abu Sayyaf, according to reports.
The kidnapping occured in Semporna which is a district under the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).
Esscom and Esszone was established in April last year following the Sulu incursion.
http://www.fmtborneoplus.com/category/nation/2014/04/04/mnlf-dont-drag-us-into-kidnapping-incident/
====
Sultanate of Sulu .. two bits ..
The Sultanate of Sulu Dar al-Islam (Jawi: [...] (Arabic: [...] was an Islamic Tausug state that ruled over many of the islands of the Sulu Sea, parts of Mindanao and certain portions of present-day Sabah (then North Borneo).
The sultanate was founded in 17 November 1405. by a Johore-born Arab explorer and religious scholar Sayyid Abu Bakr Abirin after he settled in Banua Buansa Ummah (ummah is an Arabic term for "community"), Sulu. After the marriage of Abu Bakr and local dayang-dayang (princess) Paramisuli, he founded the sultanate and assumed the title Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim.
At its peak, it stretched over the islands that bordered the western peninsula of Mindanao in the east to Palawan in the north. It also covers the area in northeastern side of Borneo, stretching from Kimanis Bay in Sabah which is also overlap with the boundaries of the Bruneian Sultanate, to Tepian Durian in now Kalimantan.
[...]
Map showing the extent of the Sultanate of Sulu in 1822. Date: 18 August 2013, 12:25:47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Sulu
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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