Colombian rebels say 8 Indians killed as informers

Source: AP

Colombian rebels say 8 Indians killed as informers

Colombia's main leftist rebel group said Tuesday that it "executed" eight Indians in the country's remote southwest, accusing them of acting as paid informants for Colombia's military.

The communique posted on a Web site sympathetic to the rebels followed widespread but unconfirmed reports that as many as 27 Awa Indians had been killed — allegations that prompted denunciations by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch and set back rebel efforts to get removed from the European Union's list of terror organizations.

Colombia's army quickly challenged the rebel justification for the killings, denying the slain Indians had been informants and alleging that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was trying to push the Awa off their lands so it could plant drug crops.

There are about 20,000 Awa, and like many indigenous groups, they have often become enmeshed in Colombia's conflict, where warring parties including far-right militias and drug traffickers frequently exact violence on civilians they accuse of collaborating with their foes.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090217/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_colombia_rebels;_ylt=AjdfG6YNYMxwvh0c1buKUQy3IxIF

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