Human rights group Karapatan today accused the military of a “massacre” following the deaths of the wife and two sons of a tribal man wanted for leading an armed struggle against a mining operation in Davao del Sur province.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, poured scorn on the military’s official version of events that Daguel Capion’s family died yesterday after soldiers entered the area, were fired upon and retaliated.

"There was no gunfight between the military and Juvy’s husband," said Palabay, referring to Daguel's wife who died during the incident.

The Philippines military has previously criticized Karapatan for issuing critical statements and then failing to help investigate claims of atrocities.

State military forces had been tracking Capion for months. In June, his fellow B’laan tribesmen killed a consultant for Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), a police escort and a security guard.

The B’laan tribe, led by brothers Daguel, Kitara and Batas, has opposed the entry of SMI’s Tampakan mining project to the point of invoking the Pangayaw, an indigenous means of defending ancestral lands.

SMI, owned by the Australia-based Xstrata Copper, is the fourth largest copper producer in the world.

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