Sultan's men 'terrorist' or 'terroristic'?
Sultan's men 'terrorist' or 'terroristic'?
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| The aerial view of the progressive Sandakan in Sabah. Philippines lost this? |
Malaysia Minister of Foreign Affairs issued an official press stating saying that Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert Del Rosario agreed to tag the 200 men of Sultan Kiram as "terrorists."
The Department of Foreign Affairs, as quoted by ABS-CBN denied this, insisting that Del Rosario merely said "terroristic" and it was taken out of context.
Read the official press statement of Malaysia's FA, to wit:
PRESS STATEMENT
BY
YB MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF MALAYSIA ON A MEETING WITH THE
SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE PHILIPPINES, H.E. ALBERT F. DEL
ROSARIO ON 4 MARCH 2013
1. The
Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, His Excellency Albert
F. Del Rosario, met me last night (4 March 2013) in Kuala Lumpur to
discuss the developments in Lahad Datu and Semporna, Sabah.
2. During the meeting, I conveyed to Secretary Rosario that:
(i) We
appreciate the stance by the Philippine Government and President
Benigno Aquino in calling upon the Sulu group to surrender and return to
their families and homes in the Philippines. The group chose to not
only ignore, but dismiss those calls.
(ii) We
also tried our best to persuade them to leave. We had offered peaceful
solution without bloodshed. We extended deadlines several times.
Unfortunately, the group chose to attack and kill our security personnel
last Friday (1 March 2013) in Lahad Datu and Saturday (2 March 2013) in
Semporna.
(iii) We
understand very well the Philippines’ positions to resolve this
challenge by the Sulu group against Malaysia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity, as well as dignity.
(iv) We have responsibility to protect our interests, our security and our peace that we have enjoyed since our Independence.
(v) The whole of Malaysia is mourning the loss of eight (8) lives of our security personnel in the incident.
(vi) Operations by the Malaysian security forces are still on-going.
(vii) Malaysians want to see this over soonest possible.
(viii) Malaysia
considers this group as terrorists following their atrocities and
brutalities committed in the killing of Malaysia’s security personnel,
two in Lahad Datu and six in Semporna, Sabah. Secretary Rosario agreed that this group should be labelled as terrorists.
(ix) Malaysia
needs clarifications about the law that these terrorists will be
charged with in the Philippines, and for the law to be studied by
Malaysia’s Attorney General;
(x) I also emphasised that actions need to be taken against Jamalul Kiram for his many statements inciting hatred and violence.
(xi) The matter that we discussed was still subject to the final approval between the two of us.
3. In his response, Secretary Rosario informed me that the Philippine Government deplores the action of the intruders. He conveyed his deepest condolences to the families of fallen security personnel and Malaysian public.
4. Secretary
Rosario guaranteed that the Philippine Government will charge the Sulu
group involved in Lahad Datu and Semporna to the fullest extent of the
law in the Philippines.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia
Wisma Putra
PUTRAJAYA
5 March 2013
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