More Surigao villagers flee their homes

LIANGA, Surigao del Sur – Fearing being caught in the crossfire between military and communist rebel forces, 300 more villagers and more than 100 lumads (uplanders) have fled their homes in Tago and Cagwait towns.

The new evacuees who sought refuge in abandoned farm huts and a barangay hall, join nearly 2,000 other villagers here and in adjoining San Agustin town who earlier had fled due to what local human rights and church groups claimed to be the “militarization” of their communities.

The groups blamed the heavy military presence on the entry of mining firms into the Andap Valley, which has rich deposits of gold, copper and coal.

The provincial Diocesan Social Center, the human rights group Karapatan and other religious groups claimed that the lumads and villagers in Tago and Cagwait towns fled their homes when soldiers of the Army’s 58th Infantry Brigade arrived in their communities last Nov. 25. 

They alleged that the soldiers pointed their guns at the villagers as they passed through their farms.

Military operations have been ongoing for almost a month in the hinterland communities of Lianga, San Agustin, Tago and San Miguel towns, all in Surigao del Sur.

They said the fresh batch of evacuees has lost their livelihood and is hounded by hunger and illnesses, just what the earlier evacuees have gone through.

“Unaccustomed to charity and longing to go back home, the evacuees need only the assurance that they will not be harmed as the military conducts its operations at a safe distance from civilian communities,” they said.

Col. Jose Vizcarra, commanding officer of the Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade, however, denied allegations of Karapatan that the soldiers had pointed guns at the local folk.

“The operations were not intended for the peace-loving civilians but for the communist rebels who refused to return to the fold of the law,” Vizcarra told The STAR in a mobile phone interview.

Vizcarra said the military offensive against the communist guerrillas has resulted in the seizure of four land mines, firearms, ammunition and subversive documents.

Vizcarra said he is determined to realize the government’s objective to cripple the communist insurgency in his jurisdiction by 2010.