<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br><br>
14-Sep-04<br><br>
Thousands of Colombian Indians March<br>
Oswaldo Paez<br>
Associated Press<br>
The Miami Herald<br><br>
<a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/9663319.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/9663319.htm<br><br>
</a>SANTANDER DE QUILICHAO, Colombia - More than 35,000 Colombian
Indians<br>
marched in a violence-wracked region Tuesday to protest attacks
against<br>
Indians and a free-trade pact pursued by the United States - forming
a<br>
column that coiled over the rolling, green countryside.<br><br>
Wearing traditional black bowler hats and ponchos or T-shirts and
jeans,<br>
the Indians gathered in this village in the Cauca Valley of
southwestern<br>
Colombia and began walking to Cali, Colombia's third-largest city,
30<br>
miles to the north.<br><br>
"We are demonstrating against the war and attacks against our
people's<br>
human rights, no matter where they come from," Luis Evelis
Andrade,<br>
president of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, told
The<br>
Associated Press.<br><br>
Colombia's war, now in its 40th year, pits the military and a handful
of<br>
outlawed right-wing paramilitary groups against two leftist rebel<br>
armies. Civilians, including the nation's 800,000 Indians who live
in<br>
the Andes Mountains and jungles, are often caught in the middle, and
pay<br>
a price in blood.<br><br>
Some 3,500 people, most of them civilians, are killed every year.<br>
Thousands more are kidnapped. The National Indigenous Organization
of<br>
Colombia says 57 Indians have been killed and 4,500 forced from
their<br>
homes in the conflict this year.<br><br>
Andrade said more than 40,000 Indians were participating in the
march,<br>
saying he believed it was the largest gathering of Colombia's
indigenous<br>
people in the country's history. Police put the number of marchers<br>
Tuesday at 35,000.<br><br>
Special "indigenous guards" were tasked with keeping the march
orderly.<br>
Government security forces also stood along the march route, which
ran<br>
alongside the Pan American Highway, to keep order and prevent rebels
or<br>
paramilitaries from attacking. The Pan American Highway is a vital<br>
transportation corridor, running from southern Argentina to Alaska,<br>
except for a jungle-covered stretch along the Colombian-Panamanian<br>
border.<br><br>
Warned by President Alvaro Uribe not to block any roads, Indian
leaders<br>
said the march would be peaceful and allow traffic to pass. Gen.
Jorge<br>
Daniel Castro, chief of the Colombian National Police, said anyone<br>
blocking the highways would be arrested.<br><br>
The Indians are also protesting a free-trade agreement being
negotiated<br>
between the United States and Colombia, a pact they fear will hurt
them<br>
economically and diminish their sovereignty as Indian nations.<br><br>
Most of the marchers are members of the Paez and Guambiana
tribes.<br><br>
Indians, speaking some 65 dialects, account for 2 percent of
Colombia's<br>
40 million inhabitants.<br><br>
---<br><br>
AP reporter Juan Pablo Toro contributed to this story from
Bogota.<br><br>
<br>
14-Sep-04<br><br>
Colombia Indians rally for peace<br>
Jeremy McDermott<br>
BBC (UK)<br><br>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3657058.stm" eudora="autourl">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3657058.stm<br><br>
</a>Indigenous Indians in Colombia have begun a march against violence
in<br>
the province of Cauca by the Pacific coast. <br>
They are demanding that the warring factions in the country's<br>
long-running civil conflict respect their autonomy and keep out of
their<br>
reserves. <br><br>
The Paez Indians are hoping to attract some 40,000 people. <br><br>
They have been at the forefront of passive resistance to Marxist
rebels<br>
and paramilitaries, who seek to recruit their youth and dominate
their<br>
lands. <br><br>
Armed only with the staffs that are the symbol of authority and trust
to<br>
the Paez people, the message the indigenous Indians of Cauca are
sending<br>
to the warring factions is: keep off their land. <br><br>
The indigenous communities in Colombia have long been in the firing
line<br>
in the 40-year civil conflict. <br><br>
Their ancestral lands are often in the remoter parts of the
country,<br>
where state presence is weak and drug crops common. <br><br>
Earlier this month, 400 Indians marched to a guerrilla stronghold
to<br>
secure the release of one of their mayors who had been kidnapped by
the<br>
rebels. And without a shot being fired, the guerrillas gave in -
this<br>
time.<br><br>
14-Sep-04<br><br>
Colombian Indians protest against war abuses<br>
Reuters<br><br>
<a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14353821.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14353821.htm<br><br>
</a>BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept 14 (Reuters) - About 40,000 Indians from<br>
southwest Colombia marched on Tuesday to protest against abuse of
their<br>
communities by forces fighting the country's 40-year-old war.<br><br>
The demonstration followed an action last week in which hundreds of
Paez<br>
Indians, armed only with decorated sticks, pressured Marxist
guerrillas<br>
into releasing two kidnapped community leaders in the jungle region
of<br>
Caqueta.<br><br>
"We want to reject all the violations of human right that we
have<br>
suffered at the hands of the actors in the conflict," said Luis
Evelio<br>
Andrade, president of the Indigenous Organization of Colombia.<br><br>
Colombia's Indians are often caught in the middle of the country's<br>
guerrilla war, and both Marxist rebels and far-right paramilitary<br>
outlaws target them for intimidation and forced recruitment. About
100<br>
members of Indian communities had been killed this year, mainly by<br>
paramilitaries, an Indian leader said in August.<br><br>
The protesters started gathering in Cauca province on Monday. The
formal<br>
part of the demonstration on Tuesday is a march of about 43 miles
(70<br>
km) from the town of Santander de Quilichao to the city of Cali, where
a<br>
rally is planned for Thursday.<br><br>
<br>
Adam Isacson<br>
Dir. of Programs<br>
Center for International Policy<br>
1717 Massachusetts Ave NW, Ste 801<br>
Washington DC 20036<br>
202.232.3317 fax 202.232.3440<br>
isacson@ciponline.org<br>
<a href="http://www.ciponline.org/" eudora="autourl">www.ciponline.org<br>
</a> <br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3><a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>