At home in Sabah, Sulus baffle security forces

LAHAD DATU, March 9 — Dense oil palm plantations and Sulu militants who can easily pass off as locals are making mopping up operations difficult for security forces sent from the Malay peninsula to end a month-long incursion in the Sabah east coast.

The soldiers and police commandos are more at home in the humid jungles of Peninsular Malaysia but they form the bulk of the security forces looking for the remaining group of 200-odd Filipino gunmen who landed on February 9 to claim Sabah for their Sulu sultan.

“To say that it is like finding a needle in a haystack doesn’t even begin to cover it,” a General Operations Force (GOF) police officer from Kuala Lumpur told The Malaysian Insider in the course of the Ops Daulat operations to flush out the militants.

“They could look like anyone,” he added, describing the tanned Filipino gunmen who share the same bloodline as some of the locals in Sabah — a state unique for its racial and cultural diversity that is seen as a blessing and a curse, with 28 per cent of the population comprising mostly Filipinos and Indonesians.

The vast Felda Sahabat oil palm plantations here are four times the size of the federal capital of Kuala Lumpur but the stragglers of the Sulu sultanate are surrounded in the four square kilometres containing Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu.

The armed conflict has continued despite an aerial assault last Tuesday that devastated the seaside Kampung Tanduo, where the gunmen first landed last month.

 The GOF officer described searching for the elusive militants as akin to driving in a new area where one had to look at road signs as the plantation was different from the jungles.

The Sulu gunmen may also be more familiar with the terrain here as it only takes 40 minutes to reach Sabah’s east coast by boat from the Sulu province in the southern Philippines, another policeman said on condition of anonymity.

A 35-year-old army sergeant from Tambunan, Sabah, similarly said it was difficult to capture the militants because of Felda Sahabat’s hilly terrain and dense oil palm plantations.

“The majority (of soldiers) are from the peninsula and Sibu, Sarawak, who are not familiar with Lahad Datu,” he said, requesting anonymity.

A 26-year-old policeman, who was manning a checkpoint at Kampung Tanjung Labian, said: “The Sulus here understand the hilly terrain.”

While the straight roads through the Felda Sahabat plantations, which are an hour and a half’s drive from Lahad Datu, remain exposed under the sun, the surrounding oil palm trees form thick clusters that cast a shadow on the ground.

The policeman at the checkpoint added that it was easy to get lost on the way to Kampung Tanduo, which is accessible through a plantation near the Embara Budi community hall — where 650 displaced villagers are taking refuge — and not through the main roads.

Despite the blazing afternoon sun, the makeshift station at the Tanjung Labian checkpoint was cool under its zinc roof that rattled whenever the wind blew.

The policeman had yet to come across a Sulu gunman since he started manning the checkpoint five days ago, which is guarded 24 hours a day by 10 policemen. They take turns during the day, but all 10 are on duty when night falls at 6.30pm.

His colleague, another 26-year-old who joined the force just three years ago, said: “They (the militants) dress like villagers. They also know how to speak the local dialect.”

The policemen added the squad did not have regular meals, but ate whenever they were hungry. Dinner would usually consist of instant noodles cooked in a kettle on the ground, reflecting the haste in coming over to secure the area.

The makeshift station at the checkpoint, which was bolstered with sandbags and had an M-16 rifle perched on a tree stump, was stocked with cola and isotonic drinks, coffee and beverage three-in-one packets, drinking water, plates, fire starters, torches, and even clove cigarettes.

“We hope that this will be resolved quickly so that we can return to normal,” said the policeman.
“Scared or not, we have a job to do. We can’t avoid it,” added the young cop, who looked visibly scared when asked if he feared confronting the Sulu militants.

The death toll in the incursion has risen to 61 since clashes began last Friday, comprising 53 Sulu gunmen and eight Malaysian policemen shot dead in battle.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said that the security forces would not rest until the Sulu militants surrendered or were eliminated.

But the followers of self-proclaimed Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III — one of the nine claimants to the throne — have previously said that they were willing to die in their quest to reclaim Sabah, which they insist belongs to them based on historical records dating back to the 19th century.

Putrajaya says will fight to till last Sulu invader caught

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Putrajaya repeated its stand today to continue hunting down the Sulu invaders in Sabah, saying the government will only declare an end to Ops Daulat once every single militant is flushed out of the country.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein pointed out that the militants, led by Agbimuddin Kiram, the brother of self-styled Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, have refused to back down despite the all-out assault on their band of fighters by Malaysian security forces, The Star Online reported.
“They have not laid down their arms unconditionally, so this will go on,” he was quoted as saying today, before adding that all those on duty to clear the bodies off the gunmen must prioritise their safety.

“We heard about people saying there were booby traps on the blast sites so my advice is plan your moves properly and make sure safety is the top priority on the list,” he added.

Hishammuddin (picture) also confirmed that the current Sulu death toll at 53 but said there may be more lives that have yet to be accounted for.

Earlier this morning, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar told reporters that another gunman was shot dead at 8 this morning.

According to The Star Online, Ismail said the gunman was killed in a shootout as he attempted to slip through a tight security blockade in Kampung Tanjung Batu.

But the IGP admitted that there was no sign yet of Agbimuddin.
“We believe they were trying to avoid security forces by moving between both villages,” he was quoted as saying, referring to Kampung Tanjung Batu and Kampung Tanduo.

Ismail added that the remaining members of Agbimuddin’s group have likely been surrounded by Malaysian forces and are moving about in pairs or in small units.

Armed Forces chief Gen Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin explained that following Tuesday’s aerial attacks by the air force, the group of gunmen managed to escape from Kampng Tanduo to Kampung Tanjung Batu due to the rugged terrain, The Star Online reported.

Malaysia launched an all-out assault on the Sulu group on Tuesday morning, using fighter jets to rain down heavy artillery fire and bombs on the now-beleaguered Kampung Tanduo where the men were hiding.

After the airstrike, ground troops moved in for the “mopping up” operations, going from door-to-door and advancing slowly over the uneven terrain surrounding the coastal village to hunt down the armed militants.

Despite reports of the rising number of Sulu deaths, however, the Kiram clan said yesterday it only believes that 10 of its men have fallen, suggesting the use of propaganda by Malaysia to claim success over its attack on the Filipinos.

Spokesman Abraham Idjirani said the family wants Malaysia to permit foreign journalists, including those from the Philippines, to enter the conflict zone in Lahad Datu, Sabah to confirm the Sulu death toll.

“You must allow the foreign and local media into the conflict areas to verify their claims. Until that is done, everything is subject to debate,” he was quoted in The Philippine Star as saying yesterday.
Idjirani, who was speaking on behalf of Jamalul, said information received from Agbimuddin confirmed that only 10 members of the “royal” Sulu army have been killed since Malaysia launched attacks last Friday.

“We call it the March 1 Massacre,” he was quoted in Philippine network ABN-CBS News as saying.
In an ABN-CBS News broadcast yesterday, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Raul Hernandez said the government was still trying to verify the number of Filipino casualties in Sabah, saying it could only rely on information offered by the Malaysian authorities.

Agbimuddin last contacted his family in the Philippines at 2.30pm yesterday, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, saying he and his men were still alive and on the run but were suffering from hunger.