The government has made an accurate strategy by holding back military involvement at the initial stage of the stand-off with the armed intruders in Lahad Datu, the Commando Veterans Club said today.

Its advisor Maj Gen (r) Datuk Ghazali Ibrahim said it showed that the government was aware that an early military intervention would only provide legitimacy to the invaders to stake a claim on Sabah.

“Under the Geneva Convention, the Sulu armed men would have been a legitimate force had the government used our army to fight them from the beginning,” he told reporters before the club’s annual general meeting in Bunut payong here.

Ghazali, who is a former commando chief, said the government would have to observe matters such as the arrests of the intruders, their burial and repatriation under the Geneva Convention under such circumstances.

The government has made an accurate strategy by holding back military involvement at the initial stage of the stand-off with the armed intruders in Lahad Datu, the Commando Veterans Club said today.

Its advisor Maj Gen (r) Datuk Ghazali Ibrahim said it showed that the government was aware that an early military intervention would only provide legitimacy to the invaders to stake a claim on Sabah.

“Under the Geneva Convention, the Sulu armed men would have been a legitimate force had the government used our army to fight them from the beginning,” he told reporters before the club’s annual general meeting in Bunut payong here.

Ghazali, who is a former commando chief, said the government would have to observe matters such as the arrests of the intruders, their burial and repatriation under the Geneva Convention under such circumstances.