2,000 IPs in Surigao displaced in Army ops, group says

DAVAO CITY At least 1, 783 individuals equivalent to 378 families from different tribal communities in Surigao del Sur were forced to evacuate their communities due to intensified military operations, a human rights spokesperson said Wednesday.

In an emailed statement, Dr. Naty Castro, spokesperson of Karapatan in Caraga, said 22 tribal communities have been targets of massive military operations and gross violation of human rights were committed in the course of such operations.

Castro said these tribal communities are under the umbrella organization of MAPASU (Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod, Continuing Struggle for the Next Generation), the inter-municipal Manobo organization from the towns of Lianga, San Agustin, Marihatag, Cagwait, Tago and San Miguel.

MAPASU actively opposes the entry of large-scale gold, chromite and coal mining and land conversion within their ancestral lands, said Castro.

According to Karapatan-Caraga, the victims of these gross human rights violations are 11 tribal communities in Barangays Diatagon and San Isidro in Lianga; 4 tribal and settler communities in Barangay Buhisan, San Agustin and 1 tribal community in Tago all of Surigao del Sur.

Castro accused as violators of human rights the Army troopers from 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion, 36th Infantry Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Battalion, 401st Brigade, operating troops of the CAFGU, members of the paramilitary group of Calpit Egua and the Gantangan Bagani Force which is under the control of the 29th IBPA.

Karapata-Caraga said that MAPASU tribal leaders and members were subjected to coercion, intimidation, and threat to force them in admitting that they were either members or supporters of the communist guerillas.

The tribal leaders and members of MAPASU were invited for interrogations in military camps, and were later threatened, harassed and vilified as members and/or supporters of the New Peoples Army (NPA), said Castro.

Presently, over 120 civilians, mostly members of peasant and Lumad organizations in Caraga are facing fabricated criminal charges ranging from grave arson and malicious mischief to multiple murder and frustrated murder.

Karapatan-Caraga also noted that teachers and students of the Lumad Community Learning Centers have been harassed, threatened, vilified as NPA schools and used as temporary military camps by operating troops.

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2,000 IPs in Surigao displaced in Army ops, group says