Karapatan reports indigenous people harassment, killing to UN rapporteur

FILE: Karapatan Secretary General Cristina “Tinay” Palabay (Photo by Tinay Palabay/Facebook)

Human rights organization Karapatan on Thursday penned a letter to United Nations (UN) rapporteur on rights of indigenous peoples, to report the situation of the Lumad in Mindanao related to the President’s ‘terrorist-tagging.’
“We are bringing to your urgent attention the recent spate of attacks against indigenous leaders and communities in the Philippines, as a result of the continuing counterinsugency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Pres. [Rodrigo] Duterte’s martial law declaration,” Karapatan’s letter by Cristina Palabay, its Secretary General read.
The letter sent to UN rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz who is a Filipino, discussed the alleged massacre of eight T’boli and Dulangan Manobo in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, and evacuations in Surigao del Sur, Sarangani and Agusan del Sur.
A recent statement of Save Our Schools (SOS) Network, an organization advocating children’s right to education also urged Karapatan to write the letter.
“After exposing military abuses, volunteers of Lumad schools are being targeted by the military by harassing them on ground and online, blocking them from going back to the [school], and spreading black propaganda about the school, tagging them as ‘schools and supporters of terrorist NPA (National People’s Army),” SOS Network said on Thursday.
Palabay’s letter detailed in a timeline from late November until December, military troops’ attacks on indigenous people which prompted residents to evacuate.
“These recent incidents and previous cases of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, harassment and forcible evacuation of indiegenous communities in Mindanao are illustrative of the worsening human rights situation in the country, as exacerbated by the counterinsurgency program and drug war,” Palabay wrote.
“With the martial law declaration still in place, and with recent pronouncements of the military endorsing the extension of said declaration to allegedly quell terrorist threats, the situation is bound to impact on civillians, especially indidgenous communities in Mindanao, who have experienced grave threats on their lives and security in the past year,” she added.
Palabay then urged Tauli-Corpuz to conduct an independent investigation of the ‘massacre’ and asked help to stop the military operations in civillian communities and food blockage.
Meanwhile, the military insisted that the Lumads killed were NPA fighters.
When it came to food blockage, according to Sunstar, the military was only following orders from the local government to stop a ‘leftist group’ from distributing relief goods as it must be coordinated with them first. While Philstar reported that the local government was concerned with the recent NPA clashes, and volunteers had children with them so their safety was prioritized.
SOS Network then slammed the administration for its terrorist-tagging as it affected even the volunteers and schools.
“They tagged the schools communists so they can justify the atrocities they are doing to them — tactics done by fascists to quell those who tell the truth.”
Just recently, Duterte officially declared the Communist Party of the Philippines – NPA – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) as terrorists, after cancelling the peace talks.