Malaysian forces kill 10 Filipinos in territorial fight
Date March 3, 2013
Floyd Whaley
Aftermath ... the bodies of Malaysian commandos are returned home. Photo: Reuters
A CENTURIES-OLD territorial dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines has erupted in violence, leaving at least 12 dead and straining relations between the close south-east Asian neighbours.
On Friday, Malaysian security forces battled with about 180 Filipinos, some of whom were armed, in an effort to remove them from a remote coastal village they had occupied for two weeks in the north-eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.
The Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported that 10 to 12 Filipinos died in the clash and two Malaysian police commandos were killed in a mortar attack. Three Malaysian security officials were wounded, the agency reported.
The group, which represented itself as a royal militia in service of the Sultanate of Sulu, which for centuries controlled the southern Philippines and part of what is now Sabah, arrived by boat on February 12 to re-establish its long-dormant claim to the area.
The Philippines and Malaysia had tried for weeks to persuade the group to leave. Malaysian authorities, who had surrounded the Filipinos, had given repeated deadlines. The deadlines passed without incident until Friday, when the violence erupted. ''Our patience has reached the limit,'' Bernama quoted the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, as saying.
The violence apparently started on Friday when the group of Filipinos tried to breach the perimeter established by Malaysian police, said Ricky Carandang, a Philippine presidential spokesman. ''They apparently tried to leave the area and were stopped,'' Mr Carandang said.
The Malaysian Home Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, confirmed that shots had been fired but said ''the situation is fully under control''.
''I confirm that our security forces have not taken a single shot but were shot at at 10am this morning,'' he wrote on Twitter on Friday.
But Abraham Idjirani, a spokesman in Manila for the armed group, said: ''The first shot came from the Malaysian authorities.''
