Mindef mulls more sea basings in Sabah waters - Johari

The Defence Ministry (Mindef) will consider adding more sea basings in the East Coast of Sabah to tighten control in the waters there following the killing of a Malaysian kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf recently.

Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum said at the moment there are two sea basings operating in Sabah and the ministry will increase the number of basings after suitable locations have been identified.

The concept of sea basing, he said in the waters off east Sabah is the first of its kind in the world to combat cross-border crimes.

The new initiative uses an old oil rig as forward base to strengthen the security in the east coast of Sabah.

Two sea basings in operation since May are the Tun Sharifah Rodziah Base in the waters of Semporna which is a static platform on a used oil rig while the Tun Azizan sea basing deploys a used cargo ship.

"The sea basings are equipped with radar system, to help intercept criminals faster than from land position," he told reporters after a soft launch of UMNO President's Cup here today.

Even though, the government had carried out the initiative to reduce crimes, Johari however did not rule out the involvement of stooges in the kidnap of Bernard Then, based on the way Bernard was kidnapped.

"There are insiders we are not aware of as the kidnappers moved straight to Bernard's table which they have probably been observing," he said.

Bernard Then, 39, an electrical engineer from Sarawak was beheaded at about 4 pm on Wednesday at an Abu Sayyaf stronghold in Jolo island, in Sulu Province, about 1,400km south of Manila.

Then and a woman, Thien Nyuk Fun, 50, were kidnapped by four armed men who raided the Ocean King restaurant in Sandakan at 7.45 pm on May 14.