Manila: Hostilities in Malaysia with a group of Filipinos claiming Sabah as part of the Sulu Sultanate worsened on Sunday as five Malaysian policemen were killed in an attack in Semporna.

Reports published by the official Bernama news agency quoted Police Inspector General Tan Sri Esmail Omar as saying that an armed group believed to be members of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu Army (RSSA) attacked a police station in Kampung Selamat, Semporna.

The attack followed the March 1 shootout between Malaysian security forces and RSSA that left 12 Sulu freedom fighters and two police commandos dead.

The RSSA were acting on orders of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram to land in Sabah to enforce the Sultanate’s several-hundred-year-old claim on the territory.

The hostilities on Sunday followed several weeks of a stand-off after a group of RSSA fighters led by Rajah Muda Kiram, the Sultan’s brother, landed in the coast of Lahud Datu from the Philippines’ Tawi-Tawi and Sulu on February 9.

Separately, unconfirmed reports said some 200 RSSA members had attacked another police station in Lahad Datu and seized three Malaysian government authorities.

Sultanate spokesman Abraham Idjirani said in radio reports that two of the seized men are top military officials while one holds a civilian post.

Idjirani said the captured Malaysian officials are now being considered as “prisoners of war” of the RSSA.

An estimated 200 RSSA members together with about a thousand civilians comprising of Tausugs and reportedly Christian “volunteers” had arrived in Lahad Datu on February 9. They said they came in peace although they carried high powered firearms that included mortars and heavy machineguns.

On Saturday, President Benigno Aquino had asked for the unconditional surrender of Filipinos involved in the stand-off in Lahad Datu “to avoid further escalation of the crisis.”

“To our citizens in Lahad Datu, from the very start our objective has been to avoid the loss of life and the shedding of blood. However, you did not join us in this objective. Because of the path you have taken, what we have been trying to avoid has come to pass,” the President said.

“To those who have influence and the capacity to reason with those in Lahad Datu, I ask you to convey this message: surrender now, without conditions.”

Human rights

Meanwhile, the Ateneo Human Rights Centre (AHRC) expressed “disappointment” over Aquino’s handling of the Sabah concern.

“The AHRC expresses its deep concern on what transpired in Lahad Datu, Sabah which escalated into violence resulting in the death of a number of our Muslim countrymen/women. The AHRC likewise expresses its disappointment on the government’s treatment of the problem. From its public demeanour and dismissive statements, it has exhibited insensitivity to the root cause of the incident and an impaired knowledge of the historical, cultural, political and personal dimensions of the aspirations of our Tausug brothers and sisters in relation to Sabah,” the AHRC said.

“While not condoning any form of violence, the Philippine Government should demonstrate that the interests of our Filipino Muslim brothers and sisters involved are its paramount concern; and it has not derogated from its responsibility to protect their human rights,” the AHRC said.

Ateneo is the education institution where President Aquino had studied.

Observers said the issue over the Sabah incident had deeply divided Filipinos and has placed the nearly three-year-old leadership of Aquino under its most serious test to date.