Sulu sultanate hits Malaysia’s ‘propaganda’

MANILA, Philippines - The Sultanate of Sulu branded yesterday as propaganda the Malaysian government’s claim that it has stopped the operations against the sultanate’s fighters still holed up in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Abraham Idjirani, sultanate spokesman, said Malaysia is simply moving its forces away from the jungles of Lahad Datu to prepare for a possible spillover of clashes into populated areas.

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman was quoted Sunday in the Malaysian newspaper The Star Online as saying that operations to chase the sultanate’s fighters and their supporters have stopped.

Aman said a security zone with permanent stationed troops has been set up along the coastline where the sultanate’s fighters had landed.

Idjirani said Agbimuddin Kiram, younger brother of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, told him yesterday that the sultanate’s fighters have no plan to abandon their position in Lahad Datu and return to the Philippines.

“Why are they (Malaysian security forces) strengthening their security zone?” he asked.

“Is it to defend Lahad Datu and the other districts from attack? Or are they afraid that the clashes will no longer happen inside the jungles of Lahad Datu?”

Last June 18, Agbimuddin reported of a clash between some 400 sultanate’s fighters and volunteers and Malaysian security forces in Kampung Dengan Tungku in Lahad Datu.

The sultanate’s fighters were moving through Dengan Tungku when they encountered the Malaysian troops, he added.

Hajib Mujaha Hashim, Moro National Liberation Front’s Islamic Command Council chairman, had also confirmed the clash in Dengan Tungku, Idjirani said.