Jaycel Kiram stands beside her father, Jamallul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan. — Reuters file picKUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — A Filipino Muslim clan claiming ownership over Sabah has run to the Catholic country’s bishops for help as Manila continued to dither over legal hurdles.
The Manila Standard Today daily reported Jamallul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan with a historic claim on Sabah, had met with Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma who heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in the country’s capital yesterday asking to raise his clan’s woe to the attention of newly-minted Pope Francis who had reached out in friendship to Muslims all over the world last Good Friday.
“We cannot deny the influence of the CBCP,” Abraham Idjirani, the sultanate’s secretary-general and spokesman, was quoted saying after the 30-minute meeting between Jamallul and Palma.
“We need the support of the Vatican.”
Jamallul’s daughter, Jaycel Kiram was also reported thanking Palma for meeting her father and said the sultanate will provide documentary evidence to the clan’s claim before Palma leaves for Rome on April 8.
“We went here to personally thank the Bishop and to show Muslim-Christian solidarity in the Philippines,” Jaycel was quoted saying, and highlighted that a quarter of Sabah’s population is Christian.
She alleged that their human rights were being violated by Malaysian authorities, the daily repoprted.
“We have videos taken by some of the deportees in Sabah and we’ll hand this copy to the CBCP on Wednesday through Mr Jimenez and the videos will show how the Filipinos in Sabah were abused and maltreated before they were killed,” Jaycel reportedly said, referring to prominent Philippine anti-crime and human rights activist Dante Jimenez.
The Manila Standard reported the Cebu archbishop saying he could not promise much to the Kirams, but he will take up the matter with people who could help.
“Of course, they were hoping that I’m able to find a way as a bishop but I haven’t promised really much except that I will seek the advice of people who I believe can help in this situation.
“At the moment, I have no particular person in mind. I believe there are agencies in Rome that can be of service in this regard,” Palma was quoted saying.
The Catholic cleric was reported as saying, “There were Christian and Muslim ways of searching for peace” as he weighed in the Sabah crisis.
Outraged Philippine civil society groups have filed human rights violations complaints against Malaysia to the United Nations over serious allegations by returning Filipinos fleeing the month-long armed conflict raging in Sabah’s restive east coast, the Manila Times reported yesterday.
The Philippine newspaper reported concerned groups and individuals had lodged reports yesterday with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, who are both based in Geneva, Switzerland, after failing to move the Aquino administration to exert pressure on Putrajaya.
The activists were reported to have petitioned the two UN agencies to “urgently intervene so that Malaysia will respect the human rights of the Filipinos in Sabah, recognised under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The activists were reported to have penned two 11-page letters citing media reports, particularly from the widely-read The Philippine Daily Inquirer, detailing the maltreatment of Filipinos in Sabah starting from February 14 when “suspected Filipino gunmen numbering between 80 and 100 were cornered in Sabah on Borneo Island, triggering the start of the Sabah standoff.”
The Philippine media have been highlighting the growing restlessness among Filipinos at Malaysia’s heavy-handed handling of the Sabah conflict, despite having previously assured it would practise “maximum tolerance” while Manila continues talks with the Kiram clan, a marginalised Muslim faction claiming to be heirs of the 17th-century Sulu sultanate who had been left out of peace negotiations brokered by Putrajaya last year.
Some 5,000 Filipinos have returned to their homeland with tales of human rights abuses that have enraged fellow Philippine citizens and lawmakers since the Sabah crisis began on February, triggered by Sulu rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram’s invasion of the north Borneo state which has been under Malaysian rule for the past 50 years since 1963.
Fierce gunfights have claimed the lives of 62 Sulu militants, eight Malaysian policemen and two soldiers as of last week.
Civilians of unknown nationalities have also been reported killed in clashes, caught between the Malaysian security forces hunting down the foreign intruders and spurred thousands of Filipinos to flee Sabah for their homeland out of fear of capture.
The Philippine Senate has demanded its government hold Malaysia accountable for the possible human rights violations on the 800,000-strong Filipino migrant community in Sabah at the hands of local authorities searching for a ragtag band of Sulu militants claiming ownership of the north Borneo state.
The volatile situation in Sabah appears to be election fodder with both the Philippines and Malaysia readying for national polls this year.
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