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Cops, Indians clash over land
14/11/2005 13:31 - (SA)
Bogota - Clashes between police and indigenous groups have resumed, amid promises by the Indians to remain on the more than one dozen farms they have seized in southwest Colombia in an effort to take back what they say are their ancestral lands.
A police officer said a protester was injured during one of several confrontations on Sunday, where police in riot gear tried unsuccessfully to remove Indians from the farms using tear gas.
Since the hostilities begun more than a week ago, dozens had been injured on both sides and a 16-year-old indigenous young man was killed on Thursday, near Caloto, 310km southwest of Bogota.
Indian youth killed
The two sides agreed to a temporary truce on Friday so the Indians could hold a funeral for the young man killed, but that ended on Sunday as police moved toward the protesters.
Gerardo Jumi, a leader from the Embera tribe, on Sunday reiterated statements made earlier by other Indian officials that the protesters would not leave the land they had taken.
Jumi agreed with government calls for negotiations to end the dispute, but said the government's insistence that the Indians first leave the farms they seized, as a condition for talks was unacceptable to the protesters.
Hundreds of Indians were taking part in the protests, armed with machetes, slingshots and wooden sticks.
They argued that the government had gone back on promises to give them more reservation land to feed their growing populations, which had forced them to take action.
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