POLHO, MEXICO, Dec 28: Convoys of Army troops, church workers and volunteers headed to the rescue of hundreds of Indian villagers held in near-slavery by the same armed groups that are blamed for massacre of 45 people a week ago.Led by heavily armed soldiers, the convoys drove deep into the mountains of the southern state of Chiapas on Saturday to escort about 1,500 frightened Tzotzil Indians from at least three villages where armed bands have ruled by threats and violence.``They were subject to forced labour and extortion and they lived in fear,'' said Dominican priest and human rights activist Pablo Romo, one of the organisers of the caravan into the village of Los Chorros, which served as a base for the gunmen.
Villagers being evacuated said police had done nothing to stop the terror that culminated in the gunning down of 45 people in the nearby hamlet of Acteal on December 22 -- most of them women and children.
The evacuees were taken to Polho, a tiny village populated mainly by supporters of the
Leftist rebels of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.
Red Cross workers in Polho said as many as 3,500 people may be making their way here, some walking dirt trails from distant communities.
``We want to leave. They have burned homes here, and we are afraid,'' said refugee Victor Ruiz Gomez, referring to shadowy paramilitary groups and death squads that roam the area.
On Saturday night, authorities charged the PRI mayor of the municipality of Chenalho with murder and said he provided the weapons used in the massacre, and tried to cover it up after the fact. A total of 40 people from the area have been charged.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
