A Filipino clan leader who occupied a Malaysian village in the island of Sabah with nearly 200 followers has said the Malaysian police opened fired at them, reportedly killing at least 10 of its members.
Muda Abimuddin Kiram, the leader of the armed group, told Al Jazeera's
Jamela Alindogan on Saturday that authorities fired at them in an
apparent bid to end the three-week standoff that threatened to
complicate the relations between the two countries.
Alindogan reported she "could hear gunshots [in] the background", when she talked to Kiram on the phone.
Raul Hernandez, spokesman of the Philippine foreign ministry, has
confirmed the incident but did not elaborate on the reported Filipino
Hernandez, however, said two Malaysian police officers were killed
and another one wounded, after their vehicle were reportedly fired upon
by the Kiram group.
"The ambassador said that the standoff is now over," Hernandez said
refering to Datu Mohd Zamri, Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines,
who met with Philippine foreign minister Albert del Rosario.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the armed Filipino
clan should leave the area as soon as possible, according to the Bernama state news agency.
"We will not let this issue to prolong," Razak said. "We will do what it takes to defend the sovereignty of our country."
Members of a Muslim royal clan who call themselves the 'Royal Sulu
Army' from southern Philippines landed in a coastal village in Sabah on
February 9 to claim the territory as their own, citing ownership
documents from the late 1800s.
They ignored appeals from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to
leave immediately or face prosecution at home on charges of triggering
The group claimed that they made the decision to occupy the Sabah
village in protest at the Philippine government's continued indifference
to their claim.
Mar Roxas, the Philippine interior secretary, said that according to
the Philippine police attaché in Malaysia, the police in Sabah fired
warning shots. Roxas had no reports of any casualties.
On Tuesday, Aquino urged Kiram's brother in the southern province of
Sulu, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, to order his followers to return home
and called their action a "foolhardy act'' that was bound to fail.
The standoff elevated the Sabah territorial issue, which has been a
thorn in the Philippine-Malaysian relations for decades, to a Philippine
national security concern.
The crisis erupted at a crucial stage of peace negotiations, arranged
by Malaysia between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern
Aquino has said that the standoff may have been an attempt to
undermine his government on the part of those opposing the peace deal,
including politicians and warlords who fear being left out in any power
The Malaysian government continues to pay the Kiram clan of Sulu a
supposed annual rent of $1,500 for the use of more than 73,000sq km of
The Philippines this week sent a navy ship with social and medical
workers off Lahad Datu while trying to persuade the Filipinos to return