Indians flee as Mexico army enters Chiapas village


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Indians flee as Mexico army enters Chiapas village 
02:42 p.m Jun 05, 1999 Eastern 

By Jesus Ramirez 

NAZARETH, Mexico, June 5 (Reuters) - Some 300 supporters of Mexico's
Zapatista rebels were forced to flee into nearby mountains after more than
1,000 troops took over their village in southern Chiapas state, witnesses
said on Saturday.

Soldiers, and state and federal police fired teargas and shot bullets into
the air when Tzeltal Indians tried to stop them from entering the village of
Nazareth, some 124 miles (200 km) from the state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez,
on Friday.

A convoy of 34 military vehicles, six public security trucks and 20 state
and judicial police vehicles took part in the operation, in the Chiapas
highland district of Ocosingo.

The community is a base of support for the Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN), which staged an armed uprising against the government in 1994
in a bid to win improved rights for Mexico's nine million Indians.

A ceasefire has largely held since the 10 days of fighting ended, but peace
talks have broken down and rebel sympathisers accuse the army of mounting a
low-intensity war against them.

``Instead of dialogue, the government has sent soldiers,'' said an Indian
interviewed on a mountainside about a mile (two km) from the village.

``We don't have anything to eat, nor anything to cover ourselves with; we
have neither food nor clothes,'' added another villager wearing the
Zapatistas' trademark ski-mask.

``We want the army to withdraw from our village. We are not going to be able
to last long under these conditions.''

The troops entered the abandoned houses and spent the night camped around
the village school.

The troops will stay ``until I receive instructions from my superiors,''
said the general leading the operation, who identified himself only as F.
Rivas.

Similar incursions have taken place in the nearby villages of Censo, Betania
and San Jeronimo Tulija in the past month, inhabitants said, adding several
Indians and two priests had been arrested.

Armando Cruz Hernandez, a deputy director with state justice officials in
Chiapas' Highland Zone, said the troops were investigating reports that
Zapatista guerrillas were blocking roads higher up in these remote,
coffee-growing mountains.

``It is not true that there is a Zapatista roadblock here. That is just an
excuse to invade our lands,'' said a man who identified himself only as
Felipe, leader of the self-declared autonomous Zapatista community of
Francisco Gomez.


Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. 
 
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