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New sultan of Sulu vows to wrest Sabah from Malaysia
THE newly crowned sultan of Sulu in the southern Philippines said on Sunday he will fight to get back the state of Sabah from Malaysian control, claiming territorial rights over the North Borneo territory. "I will fight for my family's rights in the World Court," Rodinood Julaspi Kiram 2nd told hundreds of followers outside a mosque in Quezon City, where he was crowned the 29th sultan of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. "Malaysia is illegally occupying Sabah. Sabah is ours, we will take it back." Kiram said he was appalled to watch television images of Filipino women and children being maltreated by Malaysian police in several Sabah communities. Tens of thousands of Filipinos in Sabah have been sent back home since 2002. "The Malaysians have no authority to expel Filipinos from Sabah because the territory belongs to us," he said, adding he would enlist the help of the Philippine government to bring his case to the International Court of Justice. Kiram, 56, is only now ascending to the sultanate's throne, five years after his father's death, because of confusion about succession rules. The last Sultan of Sulu left about 70 families as heirs. Kiram said Malaysia helped Muslim rebels fight Manila in the 1970s, providing the separatists with sanctuaries, training bases, weapons and moral support. He said he knew about the Malaysia's role in the rebellion because he was a former guerrilla leader himself. Kiram said Malaysia has recently changed strategy and agreed to broker peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Muslim rebels only to protect its claims on Sabah. Posted by: Fred 2004-10-03 |
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