Filipinos residents flee in fear

Hundreds of Filipinos have fled Sabah after alarming reports of abuse at the hands of Malaysian security forces surfaced. 

“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 an insurrection ordered by sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III.

Taradji said Malaysian policemen ordered Filipino men to run as fast as they could, then 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 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 soon, according to government officials.

Speaking to the Inquirer by phone shortly after arriving in Patikul town by a commercial vessel from Sabah late on 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.

Taradji had lived in Sandakan since she was six years old and was a holder of an MyKad, the identification card issued to Malaysian citizens and permanent residents.

She said that despite the whole family being holders of MyKad, they hastily abandoned their home when the police sweeps started on Monday night.

Carla Manlaw, 47, said that extreme fear of Malaysian policemen brought by stories of abuse and killings had 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 on Friday after sailing for about two hours from Sandakan.

Manlaw said the other Filipinos in her boat had also fled because of fear. “What will they do to us?” she said, quoting her fellow refugees.

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 on Friday.

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”.

“We’re concerned about the Malaysian government’s use of the Security Offences Special Measures Act to detain reportedly more than 50 individuals, and call on the government to either charge them with a recognisable criminal offence 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 centres 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 traumatised” that they tried to flee when they saw Filipino policemen as they arrived in Jolo. “Some even attempted to jump to the sea, thinking they were still in Malaysia,” he said, referring to scenes at the Jolo port this week.

Social welfare officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they anticipated that more than a thousand Filipinos from Sabah would arrive in the next few days.