31 August 2009 | Interviews | Human rights
For how long?
Military killed 12 Awa indigenous in Colombia
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Once again, the native peoples of the Awa indigenous community were victims of a massacre in Colombia. The incidents happened on August 26 in the indigenous refuge Gran Rosario – in Tumaco municipality – when gunmen stormed in a house during the night and killed five adults and seven children, including a 8 month old baby.
“There was a massacre of 12 people on August 26 at around 5 am, when a group of hooded gunmen fired at adults and children who were in the house, killing them”, Secretary General of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) Fernando Arias told Real World Radio.
Arias said that so far this year there have been 77 killings, 38 of which were against the awa people.
When asked about the reason for the systematic killing of indigenous in Colombia, ONIC’s Secretary General explained that they were intented at “gaining control over the territory and its resources”, as Colombia’s greatest richness is in the territories of the native peoples.
He also said that another reason was the “territorial control, the control of drug trafficking by the armed actors, by the subversive forces and paramilitary groups and the public forces”.
Today the indigenous territories have become a battle field, a place of constant confrontation”, he said.
