SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Squinting under the bill of his baseball cap, Leonary Marcus scans the treetops for ripe clusters of palm fruit to hack down with the aluminum scythe hanging from his shoulder. When a flame-red bunch catches his eye, he hooks the tool at the crux of the branch and yanks downward with all the muscle a 17-year-old can muster. The canopy shakes, a squawking bird flees and the fruit crashes to the ground in scattered heaps for him to gather into a rusty wheelbarrow. Leonary wipes the sweat from his face and moves on to the next row of trees, as he has done almost every day for the past five years.

The boy was invisible from the skies I flew in over the day before, wandering alone somewhere under cover of the plantations that blanket Malaysian Borneo. The monoculture is carved by muddy rivers where crocodiles lurk and laterite roads that lead to processing plants with belching steel smoke stacks. Patches of clear-cut earth indicate where some farms are being expanded to keep the boilers full and the profits flowing into the coffers of the multinational agro-businesses that own them.

On the ground, in the void between the giant trees, Leonary stands out. He plods along, despite the heat and unexpected arrival of an outsider with questions about where he's from, why he's not in school. After moving from Indonesia as a boy with his migrant worker parents, he attended a learning center run by a local non-profit organization. But because he did not have any legal documents, he was barred from secondary school, leaving him with no choice but to work the same farm as his parents for about $7.50 a day. "There is no other option for me," he says.

To the Malaysian government, Leonary Marcus officially does not exist.

He is one of an estimated 50,000 stateless Indonesian children living in Sabah province, the country's palm oil producing heartland. Thousands more have come from the Phillipines, born to workers that have arrived in waves since the 1970's to fulfill a demand for cheap labor in what is now the world's second-largest palm oil industry. Without papers that prove nationality, their children are likewise denied healthcare and education, while the rest of the region continues to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Over the past two months, life has grown even harder for migrant workers in Sabah. When followers of the mysterious Sultan of Sulu traveled to the region in early February to re-establish a land claim, a weeks-long standoff turned bloody, leaving more than 70 people dead and scores displaced. Malaysian forces are accused of rights abuses against the migrant community in the backcountry as they try to flush out remaining gunmen, while scores of Filipinos have fled the violence by boat.

In 2011, the export of palm oil and palm-based products earned Malaysia $27 billion -- a five-fold increase over the past decade -- thanks to brisk trade with China, the European Union, India and the United States, which is now importing record levels for its low price and long shelf life. Today, more than half of all products sold in U.S. supermarkets, from cosmetics to candy bars, contain palm oil. And with new government-mandated labeling requirements in the United States and Europe aimed at phasing out unhealthy trans-fats found in other types of oil, demand is increasing.

That's more good news for Sabah, which accounts for one-third of Malaysia's palm oil output. Twenty-five years ago, Lahad Datu, the provincial capital, was a forgotten backwater of clapboard buildings. Drunkards roamed cracked sidewalks by day and nightfall was a signal to stay indoors. Locals recall how their hapless police force was nowhere to be seen when a gang of pirates shot their way into the town's only bank, walking out with sacks of cash over a trail of dead bodies.

Such visions are hard to square with the robust development sweeping the area: Over the past 15 years the city's population has doubled; downtown real estate prices have quadrupled; gleaming business-class hotels and fast-food franchises line newly paved roads that are monitored by squad cars. In the middle of a busy traffic roundabout in the center of town, a gilded palm tree stands as a symbol for the government-led campaign to upgrade a region that has lagged far behind Malaysia's industry-rich Western peninsula.

"Life here used to be much different; it was a rough kind of place," says Tammay Bin Inton, 58, a community leader for whom the days of violent street crime and power outages are a not-so-distant memory. He sat with a group of friends at a popular Indian teashop, talking football over cups of milk tea and samosas. With some pride, he noted that both of his children had recently moved back from Kota Kinabalu, eastern Malaysia's largest city, to start projects of their own and take advantage of the boom. "The quality of life here has improved tremendously," he says. "Business is good."

South of town, lines of tanker trucks deliver crude palm oil around the clock to a sprawling, state-owned refinery complex where fresh lots have been set aside for potential investors. Provincial officials hope that a deep-water port currently under construction nearby will position the region to be a top exporter of biodiesel, if and when overseas demand surges. With government plans to double the overall area under cultivation by 2020, the prospects of Lahad Datu's inhabitants are poised to get brighter.

But when the subject changes to the migrant laborers who keep the tankers revving around the clock, the mood at the cafe table sours. Mention of the vital role legions of Indonesians and Filipinos play by filling menial plantation jobs that most Malaysians would never consider causes the men to grumble vaguely about an increase in troubling behavior ("...the migrants are causing public disturbances"); the erosion of local culture and traditions; and the threat migrants posed to local employment prospects ("...what about the locals?").

"The foreigners must be controlled. They are stealing jobs... Those that don't have documents should be kicked out of Malaysia," says Arnan Angkut, 50, a contractor. As for those who have toiled for decades to the benefit of the local economy, whose children are rejected by state schools and hospitals? "That's up to the bosses (of the plantations). They can take care of their workers as they see fit. We don't want to pay for anything."

It was several days later that I came across an interesting item in the Business Times newspaper: Malaysia is losing at least 3 billion Ringgit ($986 million) in potential exports and tax revenue due to unpicked palm fruit resulting from its labor shortage. To avoid huge losses and hit target output goals, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board estimated that 40,000 additional workers needed to be hired, and fast. The article pointed out that many oil palm planters are mechanizing agricultural practices wherever possible and offering better wages in the estates across the region.

"Despite this," the article continued, "many locals continue to shun plantation jobs." Officials lamented the loss of potential tax revenues and vowed to get approval for extra foreign workers. No mention was made of incentives that might be offered to retain existing Indonesian and Filipino workers, some of whom are starting to leave the country for rival Indonesia as palm plantations expand into virgin tracts of forest.

The contradiction seems to be lost on everyone in Sabah. Nasrun Datuk Mansur, a state assemblyman and assistant to the state's chief minister, later boasted to me that palm oil is the catalyst for a raft of business activities raising Lahad Datu's profile, and the region's.

Acknowledging the perennial need for migrant workers, he added, somewhat incongruously, that they "should leave their children behind" because of the extra burden it places on the state. "We have responsibility to take care of our own children here."

Until Malaysia gained its independence in 1957, all children could attend school regardless of where they came from or what documents they had. But with migrant populations now accounting from nearly one-third of Sabah's 3.2 million people, rights activists say that over the years burgeoning nativism has made the government less willing to pay for universal education.

"This whole question that arose from locals that, if you provide the education for migrant children, then the local children lose out," says Aegile Fernandez, program director of Tenaganita, a Malaysia-based nonprofit group that assists migrant workers. In other words: to propose reforms that would extend rights to migrants' children would prove costly at the ballot box. And with elections on the horizon in the coming months, no politician dares stray from the script.

When I reminded Mansur that his government does not currently provide any services, he feinted by complimenting the non-governmental organizations that are stepping up with help from foreign governments and agro-businesses, whose mega-farms dominate the countryside. "The companies are also making money," says Mansur. "They should be responsible to support the foreign children."

Pressed further about the thousands who are not taken care of, he ended the discussion and walked out of the room.They may lack government funding, but Sabah's stateless children have at least have Torben Venning. Tall and sturdy-built, with a fair complexion that refuses to adapt to the equatorial sun, the Danish native has waged a dogged campaign to sew education in plantation country since he arrived more than two decades ago as a traveler.

Venning and some friends opened a facility in 1990 to educate 70 farm children. Since then, his organization, Humana Child Aid Society, has established 128 "learning centers" (designated as such because they are not officially accredited) that offer instruction to more than 12,000 students with help from donors such as the European Union. "We came here as teachers and had no idea this was going to develop into the project it is today," he said.

It costs about $13 a month per student to provide lessons in core primary subjects, along with a uniform, two meals and salary for teachers, some of whom are brought from the students' home countries. Venning says that educating them will ultimately benefit the country by "ensuring that they have a future beyond the plantations and don't become part of the social problem."

Yet, ever the diplomat in a land not his own, he tiptoes around the question of whether the Malaysian government's must look after the children of its labor force. He prefers to focus on the heavyweight companies that are picking up some of the slack.

On a searing hot morning Venning drove me out to what he described as a model of corporate social responsibility. The pavement on the outskirts of Lahad Datu crumbled into a dirt track that winded up steep switchbacks before descending into an expanse of oil palm plantations where the dense canopy scarcely allowed any light through.

We finally arrived at the gate of plantation owned by Wilmar International, one of Asia's largest agribusiness companies and the world's largest listed palm oil firm, with more than $30 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2010.

Manager Frederick Chok greeted me with skepticism at one of four learning centers on the premises. Wearing a white company polo shirt, he pointed out athletic fields and a mosque just a short walk away, as well as a new series of concrete barracks where, we were told, veteran workers and their families were housed.

Inside the classroom, walls featured bilingual posters and a flat-screen television with a satellite connection. Twenty-plus students, ages 5-15, were upbeat and engaged. Their teacher, a young Indonesian woman in a lavender headscarf, said off-the-cuff that she'd been surprised by the amenities made available to her, to Venning's visible delight. He capped the visit off by leading the group in an off-key rendition of his Humana theme song, which borrows heavily from a Donna Summer track. Even Chok mustered a smile.

Afterward we had coffee on the veranda of the great house that overlooked the sprawling, 8,000-hectacre property, the size of a small national park. Chok stressed the importance of corporate social responsibility like a mantra and said his company spends nearly $1 million every year to take care of migrant children. In the "competition" to retain experienced workers, Chok added that doing the right thing also made good business sense. (Singapore-based Wilmar has its critics, however. The Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based environmental group, alleges the company's security forces have used violence and heavy machinery against villagers in Indonesia's Sumatra province. Wilmar rejects the claims.)

In Venning's view, larger companies like Wilmar were generally doing more to look after workers' children since the advent of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The Zurich-based non-profit stakeholders group was formed in 2004 to address social and environmental problems associated with palm oil. The group, which unites investors, traders, and oil palm growers with retailers and social organizations to better monitor supply chains and promote sustainability, now certifies about 14 percent of the palm oil produced worldwide.

But systemic challenges persist. Greenhouse gas emissions are not included in the RSPO certification process. As peatlands, the earth's largest single source of stored carbon, are cleared for palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, massive amounts of carbon are being released.

In the wilds of Malaysian Borneo, the high cost of logistics inhibits the construction of more learning centers, giving children no alternative to palm oil work. For all Venning's efforts, Humana and its partners take care of only one-fifth of the children estimated to be living on Sabah's plantations. Even those lucky enough to receive some degree of education have little to no mobility once they become adults.

Off a nameless back road about an hour's drive from Lahad Datu, Fatima Binti, 18, gazes out into the endless maze of trees. A shortage of money and the long distance from the small plantation the family works forced her to stop going to the nearest learning center a year ago. Absent documents, she can't go into town, fearful she might be picked up and harassed by police.

The maximum fine for not having official documents was 10,000 Ringgit ($3,200), a sum that would exceed the family's haul for the year. The alternate scenario, deportation and being split apart from her family, was unthinkable.

The rain is falling hard as she clicks her scuffed pink nails on the rail of the porch, waiting. She wants to be a doctor and longs to join her friends in class. She hopes her siblings will attend school "so they will be able to read and count."

Until then, Fatima is resigned to stay close to her parents, cutting and clearing palm branches from dawn until dusk, helping them earn whatever they can.

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SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved parliament on Wednesday, paving the way for a general election expected this month that could be the most closely contested his ruling coalition has faced in its 56-year rule.

Najib faces a confident opposition alliance led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and is under intense pressure to restore his ruling coalition's two-thirds majority that it lost for the first time in a disastrous 2008 poll.

Failure to win back that majority would throw his leadership and his economic reform program into doubt, raising uncertainty over policy in Southeast Asia's third-largest economy.

A win for Anwar's opposition is unlikely but not impossible, and would put the former British colony into uncharted political territory.

Najib, who took over in 2009 after the election debacle, will point to brisk economic growth of 5.6 percent last year as he seeks to regain electoral ground.

"Our national transformation is still a story half told. If we do not keep up the pace of reform, we risk losing out. But with a strong mandate, we can continue," Najib said in a television address, exactly four years after he took power.

The election appears likely to be held on Saturday, April 27, after a two-week campaign period.

Najib said he hoped for a "solid" majority.

The 59-year-old son of a former prime minister is aiming to push Malaysia into high-income status by 2020 through an ambitious $444 billion economic transformation program.

He has warned repeatedly that an opposition victory could result in social and economic instability in the nation of 29 million people that has a history of tension between majority Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians.

The opposition - a sometimes fractious alliance including a secular ethnic Chinese party and an Islamist party - aims to tap into a growing desire for faster political and economic reform, arguing it is time for a change.

It already runs four state governments and pledges to break down an entrenched network of patronage between the long-dominant ethnic Malay party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and favored business interests.

Possibly working against Najib and his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition are three million first-time voters - about 22 percent of the total vote - many of them younger Malaysians.

"The BN still has the advantage in terms of resources, media, money, and machinery," said Ong Kian Ming, an election strategist for the DAP ethnic Chinese opposition party.

"The X-factor we are relying on is the newly registered voters."

CHANGING SOCIETY

Race-based social and economic policies have defined the coalition's rule as it channeled wealth to ethnic Malays, who make up about half of the population, over the economically dominant Chinese minority since 1969 race riots.

The ruling BN coalition will be helped by a skewed electoral system, deep pockets, and about $2 billion in government handouts to millions of poorer Malaysians since the start of 2012. But Najib will likely face a leadership challenge from within UMNO if he fails to improve on the 2008 performance.

Nationalist and conservative forces within UMNO, encouraged by influential former leader Mahathir Mohamad, have looked askance at Najib's steps to roll back colonial-era security and media controls as a sign of weak leadership.

A blossoming civil society and growing middle class are clashing with tight social, media and political controls that have cemented UMNO's half-century rule.

Najib's flagship economic transformation plan, based on hefty public and private investment, has had some initial success but critics say it depends too much on public spending and risks expanding a national debt already at 53 percent of gross domestic product.

A lack of reliable opinion polls makes it difficult to forecast the election outcome.

Few predicted the extent of opposition gains in 2008, which triggered a 10 percent plunge in Kuala Lumpur stocks. Morgan Stanley said in a note on Wednesday that a BN parliamentary seat share of below 55 percent would be seen as a "negative risk event by investors and could have implications for leadership and government stability".

A recent poll by the University of Malaya showed the ruling coalition at 42 percent support compared with the opposition's 37 percent, but with 21 percent of voters undecided.

In February, the independent Merdeka Center showed Najib's approval rating at 61 percent, down 10 points since the end of 2011. His coalition is less popular, polling at 45 percent.

Anticipation of a close election that could cause policy uncertainty has frayed investors' nerves this year and made Kuala Lumpur's stock market one of the worst performers in Asia.

The main KLSE stock index briefly fell more than 3 percent in early Wednesday trade following the announcement that Najib would be holding a television address. It later recovered to trade 0.83 percent lower.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:Reuters

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Najib Razak, the Malaysian prime minister, has rejected the ceasefire offer by leader of rebels in Sabah island, saying only an unconditional surrender is acceptable.

The Malaysian prime minister, who flew to the region on Thursday to inspect security operations, said he told Philippine president Benigno Aquino by phone the ceasefire offer was rejected.

"I told President Aquino they must lay down their arms immediately," Najib told reporters in a village near where the army and police were searching for scores of rebels.

"They have to surrender their arms and they have to do it as soon as possible."

"We have given them more than three weeks to surrender and postponed it four times. We only took action after they killed eight of our policemen, so Malaysia does respect human rights," he said.

At least 31 armed Filipino gunmen have been killed in the latest offensive by the Malaysian troops. That brought the total dead close to 60, including eight Malaysian policemen.

Jamalul Kiram III, a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan, declared a unilateral ceasefire to be effective from 12:30pm local time (04:30GMT) and urged Malaysia to reciprocate, according to a statement read out by his spokesman in the Philippine capital, Manila, on Thursday.

Malaysian troops launched a major offensive against the rebels who infiltrated Sabah Island last month.

"They will not take any action. They will remain in the place where they are now. They will not expand operations," a spokesman said, referring to the rebels, believed to number between 100 and 300.

Ancestral claim

The spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, said Kiram was responding to a call by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday in which he urged an end to the violence in the Malaysian state and encourage dialogue between the opposing sides.

"The sultan is calling for a unilateral ceasefire... in order to reciprocate the call of the UN to preserve lives," said Idjirani, as the elderly and ailing Kiram sat next to him.

Anger has mounted in Malaysia over the incursion, which began on February 12 when fighters arrived from the southern Philippines province of Sulu to press Kiram's claim to the area.

At least 28 people, mostly rebels, have reported been killed as of Wednesday.

Malaysia launched an air and ground attack on Tuesday aimed at crushing the fighters who call themselves 'royal Sulu army'.

Kiram says he is the current Sultan of Sulu, although the sultanate no longer has any formal power in the Philippines.

He said his men went to Sabah to assert their claim to the area, citing ownership documents from the late 1800s.

The Sulu sultanate's power faded about a century ago but it has continued to receive nominal payments from Malaysia for Sabah under a historical lease arrangement passed down from European colonial powers.

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SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Malaysia called in air strikes and mobilized thousands of troops on Tuesday to put an end to a month-long quixotic incursion by a band of gunmen from the Philippines seeking to reclaim part of Borneo Island for a defunct sultanate.

Three F-18 fighter jets and five Hawk ground-attack aircraft bombed and strafed the estimated 200 Filipino gunmen holed up near the small northeastern Malaysian village of Kampung Taduo, Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid said on Tuesday.

The air strikes were followed by a ground assault that killed an undetermined number of the Filipino gunmen but caused no Malaysian casualties, the defense minister said.

“The armed forces’ operation to defend the nation’s sovereignty has been fruitful,” he told reporters, without providing details on whether all of the gunmen had been captured or killed.

Reports on Malaysia’s state-run news agency, Bernama, showed armored personnel carriers moving through the streets of Sabah state while military helicopters flew overhead. Military roadblocks have been set up around the area to stop the spread of the fighting, and villagers reported that in at least one case they had to remove the corpses of Filipino fighters from the streets of their village.

The assault came after weeks of pleas by the Philippine and Malaysian governments for the gunmen to return to the southern Philippines. Malaysian forces tried repeatedly to dislodge the gunmen by force with at least 27 killed in fighting before Tuesday’s major offensive. The current death toll is unclear.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said repeatedly in recent days that his government’s patience was wearing thin.

“We will not allow an inch of our land to be threatened by anyone,” the prime minister said in a statement shortly after the attack on Tuesday.

Malaysian military officials said the gunmen arrived in the remote village of Lahad Datu in northeastern Malaysia on Feb. 9 by boat from the southern Philippines. The group represented itself as a royal militia in service of the Sultanate of Sulu, an Islamic kingdom that for centuries ruled the southern Philippines and parts of what is now Sabah state in Malaysia.

Under orders from a self-proclaimed sultan based in Manila, the armed group attempted to resurrect the sultanate’s claim to the area despite appeals from both the Philippine and Malaysian governments to return to the Philippines.

In Manila, a spokesman for the group, Abraham Idjirani, told reporters that the Malaysian military assault had missed the organization’s leader on the ground. He said Filipino fighters were still operating in the area.

The group’s leader in Manila, Jamalul Kiram III, one of several claimants to the title of sultan of Sulu, remained defiant. He said at a news conference on Tuesday that the Filipino fighters in Borneo, including his son, whom he identified as the prince of Sulu, would continue the fight.

“The crown prince, the royal security forces and the many patriots who landed voluntarily will fight to the last man protecting their ideals and aspirations,” he said.

In the last few days, Philippine officials have frantically shuttled between Kuala Lumpur and Manila seeking to smooth relations with their Southeast Asian neighbor and protect the more than 800,000 Filipinos living and working in Sabah state. Early Tuesday morning, the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alberto del Rosario, met with officials in Kuala Lumpur in an attempt to reduce tensions.

Philippine officials have asked the Malaysian government to show restraint in dealing with the Filipinos involved in the incursion, but a presidential spokesman in Manila said on Tuesday that the military operation was beyond the control of the Philippine government.

“We are in no position to speculate on the actions of the Malaysian government,” said the spokesman, Edwin Lacierda. “What is clear, however, is that Malaysian blood has been spilled. If this happened to us, we would also have taken some action.”

The violence in Sabah, which has escalated into one of the most serious security emergencies in recent Malaysia history, has strained relations between the two Southeast Asian allies.

Both countries have tried to stop the violence from spreading. Malaysian and Philippine navy ships are patrolling the countries’ narrow sea border to try to stop Filipino fighters sympathetic to the group in Borneo from coming over as reinforcements.

Nur Misuari, the leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, an Islamic militant group in the southern Philippines, said at a news conference on Tuesday that his group has not supported the incursion but he warned the Malaysian authorities not to harm Filipino civilians in Sabah.

“Do not touch our civilians,” he said. “Once you do that, that will be tantamount to declaration of war against our people and the Moro National Liberation Front.”

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SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Malaysian soldiers launched an attack on Tuesday against an armed clan in the Philippines, part of a continued effort to end a three-week long standoff in Sabah after violence in recent days that already killed at least 27 people, a Malaysian government official said.

The operation to take over an area occupied by about 180 Filipinos, dozens of them armed, began early Tuesday, a spokesman for Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said.

The government sent seven army battalions to the area on Monday to reinforce police, Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reported, adding that an "all-out assault" could follow. No casualties have been reported in Tuesday's attack.

Ismail Omar, Malaysian police inspector-general, said in a press conference that the ongoing military operation is centred in the area of Kampung Tanduo, which has been "sealed off" within 4km radius.

A firefight first broke out on Saturday, when the Malaysian police tried to force the group to surrender, initially killing at least 10 people. The armed group launched a counter-attack killing at six Malaysian police, but also losing an additional seven of its members, raising concerns the violence was spreading.

"After the first attack, I have asserted that the intruders must surrender and if they refuse the authorities of this country will take action," Najib said in a statement.

The ongoing violence has already displaced many native Filipinos living in Sabah. There are an estimated 800,000 Filipinos living there.

On Sunday evening, about 300 Filipinos have arrived in Zamboanga in southern Philippines after being "deported" from Sabah, Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan reported.

"A crackdown on Filipinos are expected to intensify in the coming weeks," Alindogan said.

Earlier, Philippine president Benigno Aquino had called on members of the Sabah clan to surrender, saying negotiations can only proceed if they lay down their arms.

Centuries-old territorial claim

Members of a Muslim royal clan, who call themselves the Royal Sulu Army and hail from the 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 are also demanding an increased payment from Malaysia for their claim as the rightful owners of Sabah.

The Malaysian government continues to pay the Kiram clan of Sulu a supposed annual rent of $1,500 for the use of more than 73,000 square kilometres of land in Sabah.

Malaysia has refused their demands and, along with the Philippine government, has urged the group to return home.

The violence has sparked a political crisis ahead of elections for both the Philippine and Malaysian governments and raised concerns of instability in resource-rich Sabah state.

The crisis also comes 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 Philippines.

The group has ignored appeals from Aquino to leave Sabah or face prosecution at home on charges of triggering armed conflict. -www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- At least five Malaysian policemen have been killed by unidentified gunmen in a coastal town on Borneo island where a deadly government standoff with about 200 Filipino armed fighters continues, according to an official.

Two of the attackers were also killed in the shooting on Saturday night that occurred 150 km from the Lahad Datu district in eastern Sabah state.

On Friday, 14 other people were killed after members of a Philippine Muslim royal clan occupied a village last month to claim the territory as their own, according to national police chief Ismail Omar. Authorities were searching the area for more of the assailants.

Sabah Police Chief Hamza Taib told Malaysia's TV3 station that the policemen were shot by a group of up to 10 suspects in Semporna town.

Authorities were investigating whether it was connected to the siege in Lahad Datu.

Malaysia's biggest security crisis in recent years began when about 200 Filipinos landed in Lahad Datu on February 9, saying ownership documents from the late 1800s proved the territory was theirs.

They rejected repeated calls from both the Malaysian and Philippine governments for them to leave Sabah, a short boat ride from the restive provinces in the southern Philippines.

On Friday, Malaysian authorities clashed with the clan members, leaving 12 Filipinos and two Malaysian police commandos dead.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that the government would offer “no compromise, either they surrender or face the consequences if they refuse.''

Police dropped leaflets by helicopter over the occupied village on Saturday telling the Filipinos to give up, while the navy bolstered patrols in waters between Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Filipino group is led by a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of the southern Philippine province of Sulu.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –At least five Malaysian policemen have been killed by unidentified gunmen in a coastal town on Borneo island where a deadly government standoff with about 200 Filipino armed fighters continues, according to an official.

The shooting on Saturday night occurred 150 km from the Lahad Datu district in eastern Sabah state where 14 other people have been killed after members of a Philippine Muslim royal clan occupied a village last month to claim the territory as their own, said national police chief Ismail Omar. Authorities were searching the area for more of the assailants.

Sabah Police Chief Hamza Taib told Malaysia's TV3 station that the policemen were shot by a group of up to 10 suspects in Semporna town.

Authorities were investigating whether it was connected to the siege in Lahad Datu.

Malaysia's biggest security crisis in recent years began when about 200 Filipinos landed in Lahad Datu on February 9, saying ownership documents from the late 1800s proved the territory was theirs.

They rejected repeated calls from both the Malaysian and Philippine governments for them to leave Sabah, a short boat ride from the restive provinces in the southern Philippines.

On Friday, Malaysian authorities clashed with the clan members, leaving 12 Filipinos and two Malaysian police commandos dead.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that the government would offer “no compromise, either they surrender or face the consequences if they refuse.''

Police dropped leaflets by helicopter over the occupied village on Saturday telling the Filipinos to give up, while the navy bolstered patrols in waters between Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Filipino group is led by a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of the southern Philippine province of Sulu.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source:AL Jazeerea

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- 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.  

Raja 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 fatalities.

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."

Territorial claim

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 armed conflict.

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 Philippines.

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 sharing arrangements.

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 land Sabah.

The Philippines this week sent a navy ship with social and medical workers off Lahad Datu while trying to persuade the Filipinos to return home.

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SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A Filipino clan leader who occupied a Malaysian village in island of Sabah with nearly 200 followers has said Malaysian police opened fired at them, reportedly killing at least 10 of its members.

Raja 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.

However, there have been no confirmation from the Philippine and Malaysian government.

Members of a Muslim royal clan, who call themselves the 'royal sulu army', from the 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 armed conflict.

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 Philippine-Malaysian relations for decades, to a Philippine national security concern.

The crisis erupted at a crucial stage of peace negotiations, brokered by Malaysia, between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines.

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 sharing arrangements.

The Philippines this week sent a navy ship with social and medical workers off Lahad Datu while trying to persuade the Filipinos to return home.-www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)-Dr. Youssef Rizqa, Political Adviser to the Palestinian Prime Minister, said that the national reconciliation could be disrupted in case there is no appropriate atmosphere for its implementation.

Rizqa said in a press statement issued on Wednesday that the continued political arrests and suppression in the West Bank and the PA statements condemning the Malaysian Prime Minister's visit to Gaza do not represent a good atmosphere to the reconciliation file.

Rizqa renewed the government's adherence to the reconciliation file and the need to resolve all the files such as the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Council elections.

He described the Malaysian Prime Minister's visit to the Gaza Strip as a historic achievement for a Prime Minister from a non-Arab Muslim country, pointing out that the visit has political implications as well as humanitarian, economic, and solidarity implications.

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source:PIC