Indigenous Awa to Search for
FARC victims in Colombia
Bogota - Indigenous Awa people from
Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia are ready to search for
bodies of victims allegedly killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), local media reported on Monday.
Oscar Ortiz, president of the Native Union of Awa Peoples (Unipa),
said that indigenous leaders from those countries would wait till
23:00 GMT on Monday. If the bodies of those killed were not handed
over, they would search for the victims themselves, despite the risk
of no security guarantee.
Awa leaders also requested experts from Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil,
but not from Colombia, to defuse the mines planted by the FARC in
the area, Ortiz said.
The indigenous group said as many as 27 of its members have been
killed by the FARC, the largest guerilla group in Colombia. The FARC
claimed to have killed eight Awa natives earlier this month after
accusing them of collaborating with counter-guerilla groups.
A search mission formed by troops and supervised by human rights
groups left for the area two weeks ago, but it is proving difficult
to access.
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