Asia S-E, Malesia, Filippine, dispute territoriali, scontri etnici
– L’instabilità nelle aree contestate tra Malesia e Filippine, in Est Sabah, nel sultanato di Sulu, potrebbe avere costi economici alti:
o Sabah ha riserve petrolifere provate per circa 1,5 MD barili, e 11 000 MD piedi cubici di gas. che sono circa ¼ della produzione globale delle Malesia (dati Facts Global Energy). Gli investimenti esteri nei due settori rappresentano oltre il 40% degli introiti del paese.
– Il braccio di ferro in corso da settimane tra guerriglieri filippini islamisti e polizia malese (30 le vittime) rischia di trasformarsi in un più ampio conflitto nello Stato malese di Sabah, diviso per etnie.
o Secondo osservatori un movimento clandestino di tausug
[1] stare organizzando e conducendo l’insorgenza a Sabah, dove vivono migliaia di Bangsamoro, musulmani filippini.
o Il capo politico dell’Mnlf parla di chiari segnali di guerra civile già in corso a Sabah; il presidente del Comitato del consiglio islamico dell’Mnlf ha dichiarato di non poter più trattenere i suoi dal recarsi a Sabah per difendere i loro fratelli.
– All’invasione dello Stato malese di Sabah da parte del sedicente Royal Army (Esercito reale) del sultanato di Sulu provenienti dalle Filippine l’11 febbraio,
[2]
o i militari malesi hanno risposto con attacchi aerei e sul terreno, con 7 battaglioni, contro un gruppo di 200 guerriglieri filippini, il Moro[3] National Liberation Front (MNLF), che dicono di agire in nome dello ormai scomparso sultanato di Sulu, di cui rivendicano l’area.
o Il sultano di Sulu, figura ormai solo simbolica, sembra strettamente legato all’Mnlf, che con 15 000 combattenti era il maggior gruppo di ribelli delle Filippine.
o L’attacco malese ha scatenato nelle Filippine sentimenti nazionalistici (come già in occasione del conflitto territoriale con la Cina nel Mar di Cina meridionale nel 2012), i Moro e gruppi di sinistra ideologicamente, tra loro opposti, si sono uniti nella protesta, accusando Aquino di aver dato mano libera alla Malesia contro i seguaci del sultanato.
o Tensioni politiche anche in Malesia in vista di forti contestazioni nelle prossime elezioni generali,
o per le quali il voto di Sabah potrebbe essere determinante, sia per l’attuale primo ministro Razak, che per Anwar Ibrahim, leader dell’opposizione.
– Un esponente dell’Mnlf informa che il gruppo ha già inviato migliaia di Tausug dalle aree meridionali delle Filippine di Basilan, Sulu e Tawi-Tawi per rafforzare la milizia reale del sultanato.
– I tausug, famosi per la loro abilità nei combattimenti, si identificano politicamente con l’etnia Moro, che tramite l’Mnlf e il Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) per decenni hanno combattuto e negoziato con Manila per l’autonomia.
[4]
L’anno scorso l’Mnlf si è opposto ad un accordo quadro provvisorio del governo delle Filippine con il Milf, mediato dalla Malesia, al quale ha presenziato il sultano regnante di Sulu,[5] Jamalul Kiram III.
[6]
– Il sultanato di Sulu ha dominato la contestata area di Sabah Est per secoli[7] prima del suo trasferimento nel 1963 alla Malesia da parte dei colonialisti britannici,
o trasferimento constestato dalle Filippine, in quanto la Compagnia britannica North Borneo l’aveva ricevuta in affitto e non acquistata.[8]
– La Malesia continua a versare modeste somme di denaro ($1550/anno) agli eredi del sultanato, a riconoscimento della contestata acquisizione.
o L’Mnlf e il sultano avrebbero reagito infuriati alla concessione fatta alla Malesia e contenuta in un paragrafo non ufficiale dell’accordo di pace con il Milf, secondo il quale le Filippine rinuncerebbero alla rivendicazione dei territori di Sabah in cambio dell’insediamento di un loro consolato nell’area.
– I governi di Filippine e Malesia hanno il comune interesse a porre fine alla ribellione separatista musulmana nelle Filippine, se dovesse riprendere le armi.
– Le Filippine sono piene di gruppi armati musulmani: MILF, MNLF, Abu Sayyaf, i Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters di Mindanao, miriadi di gang criminali, e ora Il Royal Army del sultanato di Sulu.
[1] L’etnia Tausug, conosciuta ufficialmente come Suluk in Malesia, sono un gruppo etnico presente sia nelle Filippine che in Malesia, originale di Sulu.
[2] Non è chiaro se l’invasione sia stata opera del gruppo MILF o del MNLF, che nel 1998 ha siglato la pace, ma la maggior parte dei suoi membri non ha abbandonato le armi, e che si è sentito messo da parte dall’accordo del MILF con il governo.
[3] Moro fu la denominazione data nel periodo coloniale dagli spagnoli agli indigeni musulmani trovati nelle Filippine.
[4] Il MILF si divise dal MNLF nel 1977, quando i suoi leader accettarono l’offerta del governo di semiautonomia su territori da esso controllato, in un accordo mediato dalla Libia.
[5] Sulu, un arcipelago nel remoto Sud delle Filippine.
[6] Framework Agreement for Bangsamoro, l’accordo preliminare dell’ottobre 2012 tra il governo e il principale gruppo di ribelli (Milf), che prevede la creazione di una nuova regione autonoma nell’isola di Mindanao, in cambio della pace.
[7] Nel 1658 il sultano del Brunei diede Sabah (la parte ora malese dell’isola del Borneo al sultano di Sulu, che goernava una parte delle attuali Filippine. Il sultano di Sulu nel 1878 affittò Sabah alla società British North Borneo, la quale nel 1946 ne cedette il controllo alla GB; nel 1957 il sultano dichairò revocò il contratto di affitto, ma Sabah scelse di appartenere alla Malesia, quando essa divenne indipendente nel 1963. Il sultano passò rivendicazione del territorio alle Filippine, la Malesia gli paga ancora un affitto simbolico.
[8] La ribellione dei musulmani che chiedevano l’indipendenza di Mindanao, Sud delle Filippine, venne nel 1968 scatenata dal massacro di circa 150 musulmani di etnia Moro di Sulu, che nel 1967 erano stati addestrati dai militari filippini per attuare l’Operazione Merdeka, un’operazione segreta per fomentare instabilità tra i gruppi non-malesi di Sabah, in preparazione di un’invasione. Le reclute si erano rifiutate di uccidere dei fratelli musulmani e furono massacrate quando chiesero di tornare a Sulu. La ribellione durò più di 40 anni, e costo decine di migliaia di vite.
– ZAMBOANGA CITY- A weeks-long stand-off between Filipino gunmen and Malaysian police threatens to morph into a wider conflict in the ethnically divided Malaysian state of Sabah. On Tuesday, the Malaysian military launched air strikes and ground operations against a group of around 200 Filipino militants encamped near the town of Lahad Datu who claimed to be a royal militia acting on orders from the Sultanate of Sulu.
– The military assault came in the wake of a March 2 ambush in the eastern coast town of Semporna, approximately 150 kilometers from Lahad Datu, where a different group of militants killed six policemen and badly mutilated some of their bodies. According to an informed source, militants sent an e-mail message to Malaysian police authorities that included images of two beheaded policemen after the incident.
– At least 30 people have been killed in armed exchanges since the Filipino militants first arrived in Sabah on February 12 to assert a centuries-old claim to the area by the now defunct Sultanate of Sulu.
– The Malaysian government announced late on Wednesday that authorities had the situation under control with the deployment of seven army battalions to the area.
– But as the Philippines-based Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebel group wades into the crisis, the potential is high for more clashes.
– A high-ranking MNLF official who spoke on condition of anonymity with Asia Times Online claimed his group had already dispatched thousands of ethnic Tausugs from the southern Philippine areas of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to reinforce members of the Sultanate of Sulu’s royal militia. He claimed that many of them had already successfully slipped through a Philippine navy blockade put in place to defuse the situation and that more were on the way in response to Tuesday’s air strikes.
– Ethnic Tausugs, known officially as Suluks in Malaysia, are an ethnic group in both the Philippines and Malaysia who hail originally from Sulu.
– The Tausugs, known for their fighting prowess, identify politically with the ethnic Moros who through the MNLF and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have fought and negotiated for decades with Manila for autonomy over the territories they control.
– The MNLF has an increasingly shaky peace deal in place with Manila. It notably was not a signatory to and publicly opposed last year’s landmark Framework Agreement with the MILF, which was brokered by Malaysia. The reigning Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III attended the signing of last year’s government-MILF peace agreement but was reportedly piqued that he was not given greater ceremonial recognition, according to a source familiar with the situation.
– The Sultanate of Sulu ruled the contested area in Sabah for centuries before it was transferred by British colonialists to Malaysia in 1963. At the time the Philippines contested the transfer, claiming that the British North Borneo Company leased rather than purchased the eastern part of Sabah from the sultanate and thus did not possess the authority to transfer ownership to Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur continues to make modest "cession" payments to the heirs of the sultanate, in apparent recognition of the territory’s contested absorption.
– In an apparent non-disclosed component of the MILF peace deal, Manila agreed to drop its historical claim to territories in Sabah in exchange for the establishment of a Philippine consulate in Sabah, according to a source familiar with the provision. Revelations of the that concession to Malaysia reportedly infuriated Kiram and the MNLF leadership, according to the same source. Manila has cooperated with Kuala Lumpur throughout the crisis and pressured Kiram to recall his followers.
Kiram, who resides in Manila and reportedly suffers from diabetes, has so far defied those official demands while his family members have issued new threats. After Malaysia’s assault on his rag tag royal militia, Princess Celia Fatima Kiram warned of a "long civil war" in Sabah.
– Kiram’s apparent strong links to the MNLF, once the country’s largest rebel group with 15,000 under arms and increasingly disenchanted with Manila, give weight to that threat.
– MNLF leaders have spoken out forcefully in the wake of the assaults. MNLF Islamic Council Committee Chairman Habib Hashim Mudjahab said on Tuesday that he could no longer hold back his people from traveling to Sabah to defend their ethnic brethren from Malaysian forces. "We are hurt and many of our people, even non-combatants are going to Sabah to sympathize with the Sultanate," Mudjahab said.
– MNLF political chief officer Gapul Hajirul warned that the signs of a civil war are already apparent in Sabah, referring apparently to the militant ambush on police forces in Semporna. The attack indicated to some observers that an underground Tausug movement is already organized and undertaking insurgent operations in Sabah. "I am afraid there will be civil war in Sabah because thousands of Bangsamoro (Filipino Muslims) are residing in Sabah," Hajirul said without elaborating.
– MNLF leader Nur Misuari told reporters on Tuesday that if Malaysia targets Filipinos based in Sabah his group would consider it "tantamount to a declaration of war." He also warned Philippine President Benigno Aquino that any attempt to arrest Kiram would plunge the country into chaos.
– Malacanang has accused Misuari and former National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales convinced Kiram to send his followers to Sabah to undermine the government’s peace deal with the MILF. Gonzales and Misuari, who would apparently have different motivations for sabotaging the MILF-government peace deal, have both denied the allegations.
– Malaysia’s assault has already sparked nationalistic fires in Manila. Ethnic Moro and left leaning groups which are usually ideologically opposed protested in unison this week in front of the Malaysian embassy. The groups accused Aquino of giving Malaysia a free hand to attack the Sultanate’s followers after the group refused to lay down their arms and return to the Philippines.
– "If not for the Philippine government’s inaction to protect national interests, the Sabah stand-off would not have ended in bloodshed," said Yusof Ledesma of the Coalition Supporters for the Sultan of Sulu, one of the protest groups.
– The crisis is also making political waves in Malaysia ahead of what are expected to be hotly contested general elections. Sabah is a potential swing state that both Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim are angling to win at the polls. Before Tuesday’s air assault, Anwar attacked Najib in a public statement, saying the premier had failed to defend national sovereignty and the Malaysian people’s security.
– The economic stakes of sustained instability in Sabah would be equally high. According to Facts Global Energy, a private energy consulting company, Sabah has about 1.5 billion barrels of oil and 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, proven reserves which contribute around one-quarter of Malaysia’s total annual oil and gas production. Malaysia’s foreign invested oil and gas sector provides more than 40% of government revenues.
Noel T Tarrazona is a journalist and faculty member of the Universidad de Zamboanga Master of Public Administration Program. He may be reached at noeljobstreet@yahoo.com. Asia Times Online Southeast Asia Editor Shawn W Crispin contributed reporting from Bangkok.
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing).
The Economist 130223
Malaysia invaded – The sultan’s Sabah swing
In the chaotic south of the Philippines, Muslims launch a foreign policy
– AS AMPHIBIOUS assaults go, the invasion of the Malaysian state of Sabah by the self-styled Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu on February 11th is admittedly tame. Scores of men, many heavily armed, came ashore from motorboats that had brought them from the Philippines, an hour away, where they and the sultan of Sulu are citizens. Without firing a shot, they occupied a sleepy village. There they announced that they had come to enforce the sultan’s claim to Sabah.
– At first the Malaysian security forces suspected the intruders were Islamist militants (the Philippines has plenty such people in its southernmost islands). They swiftly surrounded the village. Negotiations ensued. Malaysian officials informed the Filipinos that they had entered Sabah illegally and would be deported. The men refused to go, and as The Economist went to press were still there. The Philippine government was taken aback. It denied any hand in the incursion and asked for the safe return of its citizens.
– To understand what it is all about, go back to 1658. Then the sultan of Brunei gave Sabah, in what is now the Malaysian portion of the France-sized island of Borneo, to the sultan of Sulu, who ruled a part of what is now the Philippines.
– In 1878 the sultan of Sulu leased Sabah in perpetuity to the British North Borneo Company. In 1946 the company ceded control of Sabah to Britain. Eleven years later, the sultan declared the lease void. But Sabah opted to become part of Malaysia when it gained independence in 1963. The sultan subsequently assigned his Sabah claim to the Philippines. Malaysia still pays him a token rent.
– Some Filipino Muslims regard with nostalgia the heyday of the sultanate of Sulu—a time before colonial rule first by Spain, then by America, and latterly by the Christian majority in an independent Philippines. The sultan, Jamalul Kiram III (there is also another claimant), is now a merely symbolic figure. His claim to Sabah is a romantic fantasy, yet one that grips the imagination of those hoping for another golden era. It was the Philippine government’s betrayal in 1968 of a plot to pursue the claim to Sabah by force of arms that provoked the rebellion by Muslims seeking independence for their heartland in Mindanao in the south of the country.
– The rebellion persisted for more than four decades, costing tens of thousands of lives. But last October the government and the main rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), signed a preliminary agreement to give Muslim areas greater autonomy in exchange for peace. The agreement was brokered by Malaysia.
– The Philippine government suspects that the incursion into Sabah is a plot to wreck the peace agreement. A representative of the sultan denies this was the purpose. But the sultan himself says he is upset at being excluded from the process. Suspicion also falls on another Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). It made peace in 1998, but many of its fighters were never disarmed. A spokesman, while expressing support for the sultan’s claim, denies that the MNLF had a hand in the Sabah affair. However, its chairman, Nur Misuari, has frequently complained that the peace agreement between the government and the MILF has pushed his organisation to the margins.
– The incursion clearly embarrassed the Philippine government in Manila. It has never renounced the claim to Sabah bequeathed to it by the sultanate. But it has let the claim lie dormant while Malaysia intercedes to bring about peace with the MILF.
– The Philippine and Malaysian governments are unlikely to be deterred by what seems to be an armed publicity stunt. They have a common interest in ending the Muslim separatist rebellion in the Philippines in case it once again descends into militancy.
– The Philippines remains awash with Muslim armed groups: the MILF, the MNLF, Abu Sayyaf, myriad criminal gangs—and now the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu. Militants will be difficult to root out from an environment so disorderly that some have the nerve to try invading another country.
– ZAMBOANGA CITY – A two-week standoff between a group of Filipino Muslims and Malaysian security officials over territory on the oil-rich island of Borneo highlights the lack of consensus surrounding last year’s peace agreement between the Philippine government and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
– On February 12, an estimated 180 Filipinos referring to themselves as the "Sultanate’s Royal Security Forces" arrived by boat from the southern Philippines on Lahad Datu, a remote part of Sabah state in northeastern Malaysia, to assert a centuries-old claim to the area by the Sultanate of Sulu.
– The lightly armed group is now squared off with Malaysian security forces while both governments scramble for a peaceful resolution to the situation. Malaysian police forces have declared a series of deadlines for the group to leave the area but each has passed without an armed crackdown. On Monday, the group rebuffed Manila’s offer to escort them back to the Philippines on a naval vessel.
– The Sultanate of Sulu ruled the contested area in Sabah for centuries before it was transferred by British colonialists to Malaysia in 1963. At the time the Philippines contested the transfer, claiming that the British North Borneo Company leased rather than purchased the eastern part of Sabah from the sultanate and thus did not possess the authority to transfer ownership to Malaysia.
– Kuala Lumpur continues to make modest "cession" payments to the heirs of the sultanate, in apparent recognition of the territory’s contested absorption. Despite receipt of those payments, reigning Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III issued a decree on November 1, 2012 mandating his followers and royal security forces to travel to and settle peacefully in Sabah.
– For decades, Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III has called to no avail on Philippine governments, including incumbent President Benigno Aquino’s administration, to support his sultanate’s historical claim to Sabah. The sultan’s royal order to his followers was issued just two weeks after the signing of the provisional Framework Agreement for Bangsamoro between the government and MILF rebels to create a new autonomous region on the southern island of Mindanao.
– Kiram, who reigns over an archipelago situated at the remote southernmost tip of the Philippines, has complained he was excluded from the MILF negotiations. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda has countered by noting that Karim attended the official signing ceremony of the agreement. "It is unfortunate that he’s complaining only now, " Lacierda said.
– MILF leaders have declined to comment on Kiram’s royal order to occupy Sabah, saying only without elaborating that it is a "very sensitive" issue. Some analysts believe that Mindanao’s long and debilitating armed conflict will not be wholly resolved as long as there remain pockets of disgruntled armed groups.
– Julkipli Wadi, head of the University of the Philippines’ Islamic Studies department, said that the sultanate’s claim to Sabah is at the heart of the wider conflict in Mindanao. Both the MILF and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) trace their rebel beginnings to the Philippine government’s push in the late 1960s to reclaim Sabah.
– Their rebellion was sparked by the massacre of an estimated 150 ethnic Moro Muslims from Sulu who were trained in late 1967 by the Philippine military to undertake Operation Merdeka, a clandestine effort to foment instability among non-Malay groups in Sabah in advance of an invasion.
o The recruits eventually balked at the prospect of killing fellow Muslims in Sabah and were massacred when they demanded to return to Sulu.
– A group of ethnic Moro Muslim intellectuals led by Nur Misuari later formed the MNLF and commenced an armed struggle against Manila’s rule in response to the military’s betrayal and brutality of fellow Moros.
– The MILF broke away from the MNLF in 1977 after the group’s leaders accepted a government offer of semi-autonomy over the territories it controlled in a deal brokered by Libya.
– "Some claim the root causes of Mindanao conflict are poverty, self-determination and ideology but if we are to examine the conflict closely, the root cause of the Mindanao conflict is the Sabah claim issue," Wadi said.
– Aquino has sided publicly with Malaysia on the issue, which has strained bilateral relations already vexed by the frequent deportation of undocumented Filipinos based in Sabah. To defuse the situation, Aquino sent representatives to Kiram requesting that he call back his people.
"It must be clear to you that this small group of people will not succeed in addressing your grievances, and that there is no way that force can achieve your aims," Aquino said in a public statement on Tuesday.
– He further warned the heirs of the sultanate that they could face tax evasion charges for receiving a token annual rent of US$1,500 from Malaysia in cessation money. "They could be arrested if a warrant is issued by the court for non-payment of taxes," Aquino said.
Kiram has responded defiantly by saying he is willing to face all of the threatened charges.
At the same time, the incident has stoked the passions of certain nationalistic Filipino lawmakers. Party list congressman Sherwin Tugna recently called on the government to take a stand on the sultanate’s claim to Sabah, likening the situation to Manila’s territorial conflicts with China in the South China Sea. Last year’s standoff between Filipino and Chinese vessels over the Scarborough Shoal sparked hitherto unseen waves of territorial nationalism in the Philippines.
– It still seems doubtful that the Sulu sultanate’s claim to territory in Sabah will galvanize a similar grassroots response. But the incident has underscored the fragility and lack of consensus behind last year’s peace deal with the MILF. The government and MILF are still discussing implementing mechanisms of the peace agreement, including the potential deal breaker of under what conditions the MILF would be willing to decommission their arms.
– Two armed groups, the Sulu-based Abu Sayyaf and central Mindanao-based Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, have rejected the agreement and continue to defy the government’s authority. If the grievances of the Sultanate’s Royal Security Forces are unaddressed, or the group is martyred in an armed crackdown, they could emerge as a new third armed group bent on undermining the MILF’s peace deal.
Several analysts and activists believe that the conflict in Mindanao cannot be resolved unless all stakeholders are represented. "How can we achieve peace and development in Mindanao when Mindanaoans are not equally represented in the negotiating panel?" said Rolly Pelinggon, national convener for Mindanaoans for Mindanao, a people’s organization lobbying for more equitable distribution of state programs and projects in the region.
Noel T Tarrazona, MPA, is a permanent resident (immigrant) of Vancouver, Canada. He is presently in Mindanao doing development work. He is also a teaching faculty member of the Universidad de Zamboanga Master of Public Administration Program. He may be reached at noeljobstreet@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing)