MANILA, Philippines - Angelina Jolie's help is being sought by a left-wing Filipino farmers group that wants to call attention to thousands of rural people who have been displaced by increased military operations.
The Farmers' Movement of the Philippines, or KMP, wants the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to send the 32-year-old actress -- a UNHRC goodwill ambassador since early 2001 -- to look into the rising number of internal refugees in the country.
The KMP wants Jolie to witness "the real situation of internally displaced people in the country," KMP officer Willy Marbella said in a statement Friday.
More than 10,000 people have been forced to leave their homes this year alone because of increased military actions and threats, he said.
The military blames insurgents for the problem. It is battling communist rebels, who have been fighting for a Maoist-led state for 39 years, and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front that has been struggling for two decades for self-rule in the southern Philippines.
Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, the armed forces spokesman, said he couldn't confirm nor contradict the figures cited, but stressed that the military operations aim to run after rebels, not displace civilians. Soldiers are told to avoid engaging guerrillas in populated areas, he said.
