Malaysia to close Tanduao, as 5,000 people evacuated from Sabah

Kuala Lumpur has decided to permanently close the seaside village of Tanduao, the centre of the recent encounter between Malaysian forces and followers of Sulu sultan that resulted to scores killed in and 5,000 Filipinos displaced from Sabah.
 
A report by The Star/Asian News Network dispatched from Sabah’s Lahad Datu town, where Tandauo is located, on Saturday said the 20 families from 15 homes would be resettled in an adjacent village—Sungain Merah—quoting the Tungku Assemblyman Mohammad Suhaili Said as its source.
 
Noting that Tanduao is strategically located between Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea, Said said the village will be “made into a security base under the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone”. He added that the new settlement would be equipped with such facilities as a medical clinic and a kindergarten school.
 
In Manila, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Saturday that 5,000 people, almost half of them children, have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sabah, which is being claimed by Sultan Jamalul Kiram and his followers as rightfully belonging to Sulu.
 
Constitutionalists and international law experts, citing historical documents, have said that Sulu, an autonomous island-province in the southern Philippines, legally owns Sabah, which had been given by the Sultanate of Brunei as a gift to the Sultanate of Sulu around the 17th century.
 
The sultanate had later signed a document turning over to the Philippine government the right to stake its claim to Sabah before the United Nations. The Philippines made its first claim to Sabah in 1962, a year before it became a state of Malaysia.
 
NDRRMC said the evacuees from Sabah have sought shelter in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, all provinces on the Philippine second-biggest island of Mindanao, as Malaysian forces cracked down on the Sulu sultan followers who sailed to Sabah on February 9, to stake their claim to the disputed territory.
 
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), meanwhile, has allocated 13.4 million pesos (Dh1.2m) worth of food and other basic needs for the evacuees, as more displaced persons are seen to arrive.
 
In this connection, DSWD has allocated six more schools as ‘processing centres’ for new arrivals, namely the Mahardika Institute of Technology, Tubig Tanah Elementary School, Tawi-Tawi School of Arts and Trade, Housing Project Elementary School, Panglima Annao Elementary School and Pahut Elementary School.
 
NDRRMC said on Saturday that it has on its list 944 displaced families comprising of 4,983 people, 2,903 of whom are adults while 2,080 are children.
 
Earlier reports said that 62 Filipinos and 10 Malaysian policemen and soldiers have died since March 1, when fighting broke out between Malaysian security forces and the followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram in Tanduao.
 
Reports also said that Malaysian forces have arrested over 100 Filipinos in Sabah on suspicion of having links to the group, led by the sultan’s brother, Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, and allegedly tortured them.

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