The clansmen sneaked into Sabah by sea from the nearby southern Philippines around Feb. 9.

NPR: Filipino Gunmen Seek Ceasefire In Malaysia Borneo

He suggested setting up a special committee to define the clansmen's traditional rights.

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Six other police officers were ambushed and killed by other Filipinos believed to be linked to the clansmen in another Sabah district.

NPR: Filipino Gunmen Seek Ceasefire In Malaysia Borneo

Malaysia mounted airstrikes and mortar attacks Tuesday against the clansmen, but most eluded capture in a coastal district brimming with palm oil plantations and forested hills.

NPR: Filipino Gunmen Seek Ceasefire In Malaysia Borneo

But one slave-master, a Tuareg chief called Arissal Ag Amdague, said last year that he would free all 7, 000 of the human chattels that he and his clansmen owned.

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The clansmen are led by a brother of Jamalul Kiram III, who claims to be the sultan, or hereditary ruler, of the southern, predominantly Muslim province of Sulu in the Philippines.

NPR: Filipino Gunmen Seek Ceasefire In Malaysia Borneo

Abraham Idrijani, a Philippine-based representative for the clansmen, said Kiram has ordered the group in Sabah to observe a unilateral ceasefire starting Thursday afternoon by holding their current position and taking a defensive posture.

NPR: Filipino Gunmen Seek Ceasefire In Malaysia Borneo

Later in the day, Lebanon's New TV broadcast a short interview of a man it identified as a Turkish appliance-company worker being held by the clansmen, who said he had been kidnapped after he left the airport in Beirut earlier in the day.

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