‘We’re treated
like animals’
Filipinos flee police brutality in Sabah
12:53
am | Sunday, March 10th, 2013
254 3404 3029
SLOW BOAT TO FREEDOM AND SAFETY A police sweep of the Filipino
community in Sandakan drove its residents into “extreme fear” forcing them to
escape into the night boarding whatever available boat that would take them. An
initial wave of 400 evacuees from Sabah arrived in Sulu on Friday. A thousand
more are expected in the next few days. KARLOS MANLUPIG/INQUIRER MINDANAO
ZAMBOANGA CITY—“They
dragged all the men outside the houses, kicked and hit them,” 32-year-old Amira
Taradji said on Friday as she recounted her family’s ordeal in Sandakan, which
started when Malaysian security forces launched a crackdown on suspected
supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in Sabah.
Taradji said Malaysian
policemen ordered Filipino men to run as fast as they could and shot them.
Among those killed on
Monday night during the police sweep of a Filipino community in Sandakan was
her brother, Jumadil, she said.
Taradji, who was
originally from Calinan in Davao City, was among some 400 Filipinos who fled
Lahad Datu, Semporna, Tawau and Kunak in Sabah for Sulu as the violence sparked
by the intrusion of the followers of Jamalul into the eastern Malaysian state
spread at the start of the week.
In other Philippine
areas near Sabah, hundreds more have arrived since the police crackdown started
and many more Filipinos are expected to return home anytime soon, according to
government officials.
Speaking to the INQUIRER
by phone through the help of a Sulu local official shortly after arriving in
Patikul town by a commercial vessel from Sabah late Friday, Taradji said the
police sweeps had become dreadful for both Filipinos and Sabahans known as
Orang Suluk (people who originated from Sulu).
Taradji reported the
arrest of Filipino men in Tawau and Kunak.
Some of the arrested
men, who showed immigration papers, were shot dead, she said, recounting
reports by other Filipinos who fled Sabah with her.
“Some of those arrested
did not see jail because they were shot and killed,” Taradji said.
She said those who had
been locked up were also unlucky, as the Malaysian authorities were not feeding
them.
Extreme fear
Taradji had lived in
Sandakan since she was 6 years old and she was a holder of MyKad, the
identification card issued to Malaysian citizens and permanent residents.
She said that despite
her and her family’s being holders of MyKad, they hastily abandoned their home
when the police sweeps started Monday night.
She said that from a
distance, she saw how those caught during the raid suffered in the hands of
Malaysian policemen.
“We sailed from Sandakan
to nearby islands. From one island to another, until we reached a small island
where we took [an outrigger] for the Philippines. We begged hard so they would
allow us into one of the [their boats],” she said.
Carla Manlaw, 47, said
the extreme fear of Malaysian policemen, with stories of abuses and killings,
prompted her and other Filipinos to leave for Bongao in Tawi-Tawi.
Manlaw and 99 others,
including children and elderly people, reached Philippine waters in two
motorboats after sailing for about two hours from Sandakan. They were
intercepted and escorted by a Philippine Navy ship to Bongao late Friday.
“My employer had no
problem with having a Filipino worker. But what bothered me was the police,”
she said.
Manlaw said the other
Filipinos in her boat fled because of fear. “What will they do to us?” she
said, quoting her fellow refugees.
She said that when she
heard that a vessel was leaving for Bongao from Sandakan, she immediately
grabbed her things and went for it.
Investigate now
Mayor Hussin Amin of
Jolo, Sulu, said the accounts of Filipinos fleeing police abuse in Sabah were
“alarming and disturbing” and the Philippine government should look into it.
He said he had spoken
with many refugees and their stories were the same: Malaysian soldiers
and policemen do not distinguish between illegal immigrants and MyKad holders.
“Soldiers and policemen
stormed their houses and even those with legitimate working papers like
passports and IC papers were not spared. These documents were allegedly torn
before their eyes. Men were told to run and were shot if they did. Those who
refused were beaten black and blue. Filipinos in jail were executed,” Amin said
by phone late Friday.
What’s really happening?
“We are asking our
government to investigate now. Refugees from Sandakan and Sabah had spoken to
us about their ordeals. If indeed what they have been telling us is true, then
Malaysian authorities are not just targeting the Kirams in Lahad Datu,” Amin
said.
The New York-based Human
Rights Watch also wants to know what is really happening in Sabah.
Phil Robertson, deputy
Asia director of Human Rights Watch, issued a statement on Friday saying
that while the “situation on the ground in the conflict zone in Sabah is still quite
murky,” Malaysia “should provide clear and accurate information on what
had occurred.”
Robertson said the
Malaysian authorities should “ensure the protection of all civilians in the
area, and allow humanitarian access for the provision of emergency assistance
to those affected by the violence.”
Detained without charges
“We’re concerned about
the Malaysian government’s use of the Security Offenses Special Measures Act to
detain reportedly more than 50 individuals, and call on the government to
either charge them with a recognizable criminal offense or release them.
All parties to the conflict should heed the call of UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon to ‘act in full respect of international human rights norms and
standards,” Robertson said.
Amin said that for now,
he tended to believe the stories told by the refugees that Filipino men,
especially Tausug, were being killed in the streets and in detention centers in
Malaysia.
“Our people are treated
like animals there and this has to stop because they are no longer hitting the
Kirams,” Amin said.
He said one reason why
he believed the stories was his observation that children and women were so
“deeply traumatized” that they tried to flee when they saw Filipino policemen
as they arrived in Jolo.
“Some (of them) even
attempted to jump to the sea, thinking they were still in Malaysia,” he said,
referring to scenes at the Jolo port this week.
“I spoke to them and
gave them assurance that they were all home and no one would harm them now and
the policemen securing the port were not Malaysians but Filipinos protecting
them,” Amin said.
Humanitarian crisis
Social welfare
officials, who spoke to the Inquirer on condition of anonymity, said they
anticipated that more than a thousand Filipinos from Sabah would arrive in the
next few days.
One official said the
crush of evacuees would “pose a problem” greater than the difficulties caused
by the massive deportation of Filipinos from Malaysia in 2002.
Some 64,000 undocumented
Filipinos were forced out of Sabah in that year and feeding or relocating them
became a nightmare for officials.
Amirah Lidasan of the
militant group Suara Bangsamoro said she pitied women and children who braved
danger at sea to escape the Sabah violence.
The waters between Sabah
and the Philippine areas of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu are known for huge waves that
could swamp and capsize small vessels.
Survival problems
Taradji said another
problem facing many Filipinos fleeing Sabah was how to live in the Philippines
after living for decades in Malaysia.
She said she managed to
bring some money to sustain her family for a few days.
But after that, she and
her husband do not know how to feed the family, she said.
“We do not even know
which way is Calinan now,” Taradji said, adding that the Philippines is now a
foreign land to her and her family after living for the past 26 years in Sabah.
Manlaw had the same
thing to say.
“We have no future here,
unlike in Sabah where we had jobs,” she said.
Like Taradji, Manlaw and
the other refugees who arrived in Bongao were being assisted by government
agencies. With reports from Cynthia D. Balana in Manila; and
Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao
First posted 6:10 pm | Saturday, March 9th, 2013
History notes that once a dictator is forced out of office he is likely to leave a trail of chaos and anarchy.
