KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -
Malaysian security forces have surrounded about 100 armed men believed to be
from a breakaway rebel faction in the southern Philippines, Malaysian police
and a government official said on Thursday, but a Philippine official said they
were unarmed Filipinos who had been promised land.
The standoff in Malaysia's
eastern Sabah state on Borneo island threatened to stir tension between the
Southeast Asian neighbors whose ties have been periodically frayed by security
and migration problems caused by a porous sea border.
"Our firepower is more
than enough to arrest them but the government has chosen to negotiate with them
so they leave peacefully to return to the south of the Philippines,"
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, on a visit to Sabah ahead of national
elections, was quoted as saying by state-run Bernama news agency.
Malaysian police said in a
statement the situation was under control, but did not say whether the men had
agreed with a request to surrender.
A high-ranking Malaysian
government source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters the
gunmen were suspected to be from a faction unhappy with the Philippines' recent
peace deal with the main Muslim rebel group.
Raul Hernandez, a spokesman
for the Philippine Foreign Ministry, said his government was trying to get
information about the incident and was in touch with Malaysian officials.
A Senior Philippine Military
Official said navy boats and an aircraft had been sent to the border area. He
dismissed the Malaysian account of the group, saying they were unarmed
Filipinos who had been promised land in Sabah.
He said a meeting over the
land claim had attracted a large crowd and drawn the attention of Malaysian
authorities.
"We know that these
people arrived there five days ago and most of them are from nearby islands,"
said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"Some of them were
already residents in Sabah for a long time and they normally cross the border
without any problem."
Another
Philippine military officer said the men were followers of the heirs of the
Sultan of Sulu - an Island Group off the southern Philippines - who had been
invited to Sabah by a Malaysian opposition politician to discuss land issues.
Malaysia pays a token amount
to the Sultanate each year for the 'rental' of Sabah state - an arrangement
that stretches back to British colonial times.
The number of illegal Muslim
immigrants from the impoverished southern Philippines has surged in recent
decades, stirring social tension with indigenous Christian inhabitants in
Sabah.
The Philippine government
signed a landmark peace deal with Muslim rebels late last year to end a 40-year
conflict in the south, but some factions have voiced opposition.
In 2000, a group of
militants from the southern Philippines kidnapped 21 tourists from the Sabah
diving resort of Sipadan. In 1985, 11 people were killed when gunmen believed
to be from the southern Philippines entered Lahad Datu in Sabah, shooting at
random before robbing a bank.
(NOTE
: Reporting By Siva Sithraputhran and Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur; Manuel
Mogato in Manila; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Nick Macfie)
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