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January 12, 2006
Philippines: Muslim Sultan of Maguindanao Gunned Down
Arab News reports that the Muslim sultan of Maguindanao and his brother were victims of an attack by gunmen in the southern Philippines.
Maguindanao province is located in the west of the southern island of Mindanao, and is part of a region entitled the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM, which was officially inaugurated on November 6, 1990. Maguindanao is a small province, covering only 5425 square kilometers. It has a population of about 800,000. It is mountainous in the west, and in the east it shares territory with the Cotabato plains.
Two masked men attacked the sultan and his brother in an ambush on Wednesday evening, as they walked home in the town of Sultan Kudarot. The gunmen were riding a motorcycle. The sultan, Datu Amir Baraguir, was killed. His brother Andy was wounded but survived.
45 year old Baraquir became the 25th sultan a year ago. He was described by police as a moderate Muslim. Before being enthroned, he had a newspaper column and had a community radio station which urged Muslims Christians and mountain tribes to live together peacefully. Some of his columns and shows invoked the anger of local Islamists, who wish to set up an Islamist state on Mindanao island.
His sultanate was a vestige of a once greater power. Originally, between the 14th and 17th centuries the Maguindanao sultanate ruled over the entire island of Mindanao, Basilan island and the kingdom of Ternate in land now deemed part of Indonesia. The role of sultan has little more than symbolic power nowadays, where the sultan is expected to be a symbol of Muslim culture and tradition.
The identity and motives of the killers is unknown. There are fears that the assassination may be the start of, or a trigger to, a clan war between houses of other sultanates. MILF, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has denied involvement with the murder. Their spokesman, Eid Kabalu, said: "We've been hearing about family feuds among the sultan's heirs."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 12, 2006 11:01 PM
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