'ETHNOCIDE' | Lumad exodus grows, case eyed in global court over educator's killing

From InterAksyon (Sep 6): 'ETHNOCIDE' | Lumad exodus grows, case eyed in global court over educator's killing



A family sleeps on the ground of the Provincial Sports Center in Tandag City. (Erwin Mascariñas/InterAksyon.com)

Amid growing outrage over the recent killings of tribal leaders running alternative schools for the lumad, soldiers who hail from indigenous tribes in Mindanao have been trained to become instructors of government’s Alternative Learning System, the Army’s 4th Infantry Division said Sunday.

This, as leaders of a support group for indigenous communities said Sunday the aggrieved Lumad may raise the issue of deliberate murders of indigenous peoples (IPs) before the courts or even international tribunals.

According to them, 68 people have been summarily killed since 2010, including 13 lumad who were killed since March 2015.

The military's announcement that soldiers from IP groups have been trained to take over the schools evoked a jarring note to the outcry against the recent killings, the latest being the Sept. 1 murder of an award-winning lumad educator and two IPs.

According to a statement from the 4th ID, at least 24 soldiers who come from tribes in Region 10 and Caraga completed their ALS Instructor Training in Camp Evangelista, Cagayan de Oro Saturday afternoon.

The training was conducted with the Department of Education Region 10.

The 4th ID commander, Major General Oscar Lactao, thanked DepEd regional office and exhorted the soldiers to “use this training as a tool that will be shared to the people living in far-flung communities. Take this as an opportunity to become role models and future leaders of the nation.”

Nearly 3,000 evacuees

Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 residents of hinterland communities in Surigao del Sur, mostly Manobo, have evacuated to the provincial capital Tandag City following the killing of Emerito Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development, and the execution of tribal leaders Dionel Campos and his cousin Bello Sinzo.

The ALCADEV is an award-winning tribal school in Barangay Diatagon, Lianga town that the military has often accused of advocating support for communist rebels.

The three were killed by a tribal militia, the Magahat, according to initial reports, but subsequent eyewitness accounts indicate that troops of some units of the 4th ID may have been involved in the deaths of Campos and Sinzo.

Campos and Sinzo were publicly executed by heavy gunfire, while Samarca’s body was found with multiple stab wounds and his throat slit ear-to-ear inside a classroom the IPs had built in Diatagon, according to a report by Karapatan human rights group.

Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel has demanded that the Army immediately disband the militias, whom he blames for repeated evacuations of hinterland residents for the past six years.

The Army helped in creating this militia group, the governor said, adding, "they should find a means to stop and put an end to them.”

The human rights group Karapatan said in a news release Sunday the number of lumad (indigenous people) forced to evacuate their homes in Surigao del Sur have swollen to more than 2,700 as military and para-military operations continue,

Karapatan identified the military and para-military groups that are frightening people away from their homes and communities as the 36th Infantry Battalion, 75th Infantry Battalion, Special Forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and the groups of Marcos Bocales and Marcial Belandres.

The evacuees come from 21 lumad communities in the four hinterland municipalities of Surigao del Sur (Lianga, San Agustin, San Miguel, and Tago), it added.

Karapatan said nine tribal schools have been closed down as the evacuation affects 676 students and 47 teachers.

Ethnocide?

Relatedly, the Community-Based Health Programs (CBHPs) of the Philippines has demanded justice for Samarca, Campos and Sinzo.

Dr. Eleanor A. Jara, executive director of the Council for Health and Development (CHD), which supervises CBHPs, said the barbarism committed against Samarca, Campos and Sinzo was similar to that inflicted on a community health worker and her husband in Negros Oriental several months ago.

All the murdered IP leaders were known to be opposed to the operations of mining companies like Nickel Asia and SR Metals, both of which are owned by financial backers of Liberal Party  presidential contender and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas like Salvador “Buddy” Zamora and Eric Gutierrez.

Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice is also identified with SR Metals, but has claimed in earlier interviews he had divested himself os his interest in the firm.

According to Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) secretary general Piya Macliing Malayao, the total number of victims of summary killings since Aquino took over in 2010 has risen to 68 and the 13 who died since March 2015 all belong to Lumad communities.

One IP leader was also snatched, 99 were harassed, trumped-charges were filed against 176 leaders and members of indigenous groups, and seven have been imprisoned.

Minority communities were also bombed nine times and communities were forced to evacuate 44 times, Katribu said.

Ethnocide is the deliberate destruction of a culture as well as people belonging to a specific ethnic and linguistic stock.

Global courts

Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna said the aggrieved Lumads may raise the issue of deliberate murders of their fellow members of indigenous peoples (IPs) before the courts or even international tribunals.

He noted that Serbian leaders have been hauled off to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia decades ago.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the human rights watchdog Karapatan, said the reports about the grisly murders, along with testimonies from scores of witnesses, have already been furnished to United Nations Special Rappporteur (UNSR) on Extrajudicial Killing Christof Heyns and UNSR on Human Rights Defenders Michel Forst.

UNSR on the Human Rights of Displaced Persons Cheloka Beyani also came to know the plight of 700 Lumad evacuees at the Haran Compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao City in July 2015 and even became the victim of the military, who claimed that the UN official admitted the evacuees were being held against their will by human rights advocates.

Jara, who heads the 64 members of CBHPs, said: “As fellow advocates of community welfare, the CBHPs condemn the continuous military-backed harassment and killing of community leaders. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) continues to receive a huge chunk of the national budget and has boasted of using it for peace and development. On the contrary, human rights violations attributed to the military and military-backed units have only intensified within the Aquino administration -- nothing new since the martial law era.”

“The people of Mindanao, especially the indigenous people, are already deprived of social services and continue to suffer because of the massive land-grabbing, environmental destruction, mining-company incursions, and militarization. Like the CBHPs, organizations such as Alcadev and Mapasu support and unify these communities to attain the basic rights that the government has failed to provide,” Jara stressed.

“Attacks on community-based workers are attacks on the people themselves. It is imperative that paramilitary forces are disarmed, and the military pull out of IP communities. We call for an immediate and independent investigation into this recent spate of killings and the perpetrators of this heinous act be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” she added.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/117137/ethnocide--lumad-exodus-grows-case-eyed-in-global-court-over-educators-killing