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Communist Rebels Kidnap Five Philippine Soldiers
[An Nahar] Communist gunnies wearing military uniforms kidnapped five soldiers in the southern Philippines, in the latest of a series of violent acts following the collapse of peace talks, authorities said Tuesday.The New People's Army guerrillas set up a roadblock on the outskirts of Davao City on Monday and seized the five soldiers as they were passing through on cycle of violences, said military front man Colonel Ramon Zagala. He condemned the abduction, saying the soldiers were unarmed, in civilian clothes and on their way to buy supplies for a community feeding program when they were seized. "Their objective is... to try to project power, to sow fear. You are sending a clear message to the community: the people who you think can help you.. this is what we can do with them," he told Agence La Belle France Presse. The NPA has been waging a 44-year-old Maoist armed campaign that has claimed at least 30,000 lives. The military estimates the NPA has about 4,000 fighters. The government had been hoping to sign a pact to end the rebellion before President Benigno Aquino ended his six-year term in 2016. But the government said in April that peace talks had collapsed. Davao, the biggest city on the southern island of Mindanao, has long been a hotbed of communist insurgency. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-19 |
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