MNLF: 3k fighters reinforce royal forces

From the Manila Standard Today (Apr 17): MNLF: 3k fighters reinforce royal forces

At least 3,000 Moro National Liberation Front fighters have allegedly landed in North Borneo to reinforce the “royal security forces” of the Sultanate of Sulu in case fighting resumes in the troubled Malaysian state, an MNLF official claimed on Tuesday.

MNLF peace panel member Absalom Cerveza claimed the 3,000 MNLF guerillas arrived in small groups at different areas in Sabah over a span of three weeks after the fighting between RSF and Malaysian forces subsided.

“They sailed to Sabah in different batches using various routes undetected either by Philippine and Malaysian naval forces,” Cerveza said.

“The MNLF group came from Jolo and Tawi aboard fast boats and slipped through the naval blockade imposed by the Philippine Navy and the Coast Guard,” he added.

The sultanate’s spokesman Abraham Idjirani said they were not aware of the arrival of such a force and the MNLF has not contacted them about it. Idjirani noted that it would take at least 60 motorboats to transport a force of that many people.

Cerveza, however, said the contingent has already regrouped and is now formulating military strategies in case Malaysian forces renew violent attacks against the forces sultanate which dispatched more than 200 men to Sabah last February to reassert the sultanate’s claim to Sabah.

“[But] they are not contemplating any assault on Malaysian forces. [They are] merely devising an effective and efficient strategy tactic in the event fighting resumes,” Cerveza said.

He claimed the MNLF fighters did not bring any arms with them because they have enough weapons stored in a secret armony in Sabah, the same armaments that Libya smuggled through Sabah during the Mindanao uprising in the 1970’s.

Cerveza had earlier claimed slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sent to Moro National Liberation Front rebels thousands of firearms through Sabah, Malaysia in the 1970s.

“Some of those firearms are in the possession of thousands of [former MNLF] rebels who are presently residing in Sabah,” Cervesa said in confirming that Libya smuggled arms to the Moro rebels through Sabah in cooperation with some Malaysian officials.

Cerveza made the remark after international whistleblower group WikiLeaks published two declassified diplomatic cables from the United States Department of State and the American embassy in Manila revealing the role of Malaysian officials in supplying the Moro rebels.

According to a cable, dated March 10, 1973, Indonesian Ambassador to Washington Sjarif Thajeb admitted to then assistant state secretary Marshall Green that Mustapha bin Harun, the first governor of the state of Sabah, connived with Libya to supply arms to the MNLF.

Three years later, another US diplomatic cable, dated April 26, 1976, revealed that then Sabah chief minister Fuad Stephens admitted to an American diplomat that some Malaysian officials were helping the MNLF because of Manila’s claim on the north Borneo territory that is now known as Sabah.

“He said it was no secret that his predecessor, former chief minister Tun Mustapha, had been running guns and money from Libya’s Gaddafi to the Philippine guerrillas,” according to the cable written by an unnamed American Embassy official in Kuala Lumpur.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/04/17/mnlf-3k-fighters-reinforce-royal-forces/