Sulu Sultanate wants to negotiate with Malaysia peacefully over Sabah
claim
January 3, 2014
AFTER its Royal Forces occupied a portion of the disputed
Sabah that resulted to a standoff, the Sultanate of Sulu and North
Borneo on Friday expressed willingness to negotiate with the
Malaysian government.
Newly installed Sultan Esmail Kiram 2nd has approved the
recommendation of the Advisory Council of the Sultanate to push for a peaceful
and civilized resolution of the Sabah claim.
“Today, I have approved the recommendation of the Council to
resolve the Sabah issue in a civilized and peaceful manner, which
recommendation is also sanctioned by the Ulama Council of Mindanao,” Kiram said
in a press briefing.
As an initial step, he directed the chairman of the council
to form and create a negotiating panel preparatory to the formal negotiation of
the territorial dispute between the Sultanate of Sulu and the Federation of
Malaysia.
The membership of the panel will be announced by the
Sultanate on the next few days.
When asked if a government official will be part of the
negotiating panel, the Sultanate said it is no longer necessary since they are
claiming a private property and not duly owned by the government.
Kiram also ordered the legal panel of the Sultanate and its international
legal experts to prepare the legal groundwork and conduct inventory of legal and
historical documents to prove its legal and historical rights over Sabah .
He likewise urged the Philippine government to support the
case of the Sultanate to be filed before the International Court of Justice and
other international tribunals cognizant of the case.
Kiram said the move is only part of the Sultanate’s “New
Year’s resolution to repossess Sabah through
peaceful means.”
Sultanate Secretary General Abraham Idjirani said “the
entire supporters of the sultanate support the sultan’s desire to reposess Sabah .
He likewise expressed hope that the President Benigno Aquino
3rd will support the sultanate as the “issue involves the interests of the Philippines , the sultanate, and Malaysia .”
More than 200 Royal Security Force (RSF) members headed by
Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, younger brother of the reigning sultan, occupied a
portion of Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu in Sabah
on February 9 last year.
When they were discovered by Sabah authorities, they were
asked to withdraw and return to Tawi-Tawi, Mindanao ,
but they resisted that resulted to a standoff.
A shooting war erupted on March 1, 2013 that led to the
launching of an all-out war by the Malaysian Security Forces against the
Sultanate’s forces.
The Malaysian government had filed rebellion and terrorism
charges against those captured, one of them the son of Sultan, who has denied
participation in the standoff.
http://manilatimes.net/sulu-sultanate-wants-to-negotiate-with-malaysia-peacefully-over-sabah-claim/64822/
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