10 Filipino rebels have surrendered, says Malaysian envoy

Followers of former Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III display placards while holding a brief protest in front of the Blue Mosque in Maharlika village, Taguig city, south of Manila March 1, 2013. — Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, Mar 1 — Ten Filipino rebels have surrendered after deadly gunfire erupted between Malaysian security forces and the rebel group occupying Lahad Datu today, the Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines said today.

The ABS-CBN News online news site also quoted Malaysian ambassador Mohammad Zamri Mohammad Kassim as saying that the siege has ended. 

“The ambassador said the standoff is now over,” Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said today.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s online news site quoted Hernandez as saying that Mohammad Zamri had met with Philippine Foreign Affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario at Manila to inform him of the surrender.

Hernandez reportedly said that the Philippine government was still confirming the rebel group spokesman’s report that 10 members had died in the armed assault. 

Two Malaysian commandoes were also killed after coming under mortar fire. The owner of the house, where self-proclaimed Sulu Sultan Jamallul Kiram III was staying, was slain too, according to Mohammad Zamri, bringing the death toll at press time to 13.

Four rebels and four policemen were also reportedly wounded.

About 180 Filipino rebels, including 30 gunmen, invaded Sabah on February 9 and had refused to leave before today’s fatal shootout, despite pleas from the Malaysian and Philippine governments.

Two rebels reportedly escaped and ran towards the sea, according to ABS-CBN News.

Del Rosario has requested for full access to the rebel group so that the Philippine government can provide medical treatment and consular assistance, according to Hernandez.

“Secretary del Rosario also requested clearance for the Philippine Navy ship AT-296 BRP Tagbanua to proceed to Lahad Datu to enable Philippine medical personnel abroad to attend to the wounded and ferry them and the remaining members of the group back to their respective homes and families,” said Hernandez, as quoted by ABS-CBN News.

Sabah’s east coast has been put on a high security alert. 

Semporna district police chief Deputy Supt Firdaus Francis Abdullah was reported by The Star Online as saying that the police are on stand-by with other security agencies for further action. 

“We have yet to receive any emergency order from the higher authorities,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.

Firdaus reportedly urged residents there to stay calm as the alert was only a precaution.

“Many are worried that the problem would spread to Semporna, but actually there is no need to worry here as the Sulu gunmen have been cornered in Lahad Datu,” he was quoted as saying.

Semporna and Lahad Datu, which are both on Sabah’s east coast, have faced attacks in the 1980s and 1990s primarily from pirates in southern Philippines, the news portal reported.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Free Radio Sarawak as saying that the Felda Sahabat 17 oil palm plantation near Kampung Tanduo, where the rebels have been holed up since February 9, was filled with an “uncanny silence”.

Lahad Datu, which is about 130km away from the battle site, was also described as a “ghost town’, with all shops in the town centre closed as army patrols moved about, with some standing guard at schools and the district hospital.

The ambassador said the standoff is now over. — Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman, Raul Hernandez

SAPP chief Datuk Yong Teck Lee told The Malaysian Insider that a curfew would be imposed on Lahad Datu at 4pm, prohibiting all vehicular movements.

A police officer in the Lahad Datu police district headquarters, who did not want to be named, told The Malaysian Insider, however, that no orders of a curfew or an emergency have been issued so far.

Jamallul reportedly stressed today that the group would not leave the area despite the assault.

He reportedly said yesterday that they would never surrender and were willing to die in Sabah.

The family of rebel group leader Agbimuddin Kiram, who is the brother of Jamallul, denied that Agbimuddin was arrested by the Malaysian authorities, according to Solar News.

Residents in Lahad Datu told The Malaysian Insider that business owners were closing shops near the town and on the outskirts while parents were picking up their children from schools.

Yong also tweeted that MAS has suspended flights to Lahad Datu.

He said several military flights landed this morning, according to locals.

The armed group, suspected of being a faction of a Philippine Muslim rebel group, claims to belong to the “royal army” of the Sulu sultanate.

The bizarre drama had threatened to stir tension between the Southeast Asian neighbours whose ties have been periodically frayed by security and migration problems caused by a porous sea border.

News wire Reuters had reported that Malaysia pays a token sum to the Sultanate of Sulu each year for the “rental” of Sabah — an arrangement that stretches back to British colonial times.

In 2000, a group of militants from the southern Philippines kidnapped 21 tourists from the Sabah diving resort of Sipadan.

In 1985, 11 people were killed when gunmen, believed to be from the southern Philippines, entered Lahad Datu, shooting at random before robbing the local branch of Standard Chartered Bank.