Massacres Again on the Rise in Colombia

by Teo Ballvé

Feb 12, 2009


The Awá indigenous group in southeastern Colombia have suffered grave attacks from all sides of the Colombian conflict: army, two rebel groups, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries. Their territories in the jungles of Nariño department (or state) are also riddled with anti-personnel mines planted by the armed groups that suddenly rip through innocent bodies.

In just over a week, as many as 27 Awá have been killed in the largest mass killing of an indigenous ethnicity of recent years. Reports are still sketchy, but it all began on Feb. 4. According to a national organization of indigenous groups, members of the FARC arrived to an isolated Awá village near the town of Barbacoas. They tied up several members of the group, beat them, and then shot several for supposedly collaborating with the Army. Apparently, these first killings caused a mass displacement and while trying to flee, another ten Awá were abducted and/or killed by an unidentified armed group (reports are still coming in). 

This latest incident is only the latest of a growing number of mass killing in recent months. Human rights groups are concerned that Colombia is on the brink of a repeat of some of the worst years of the armed conflict, when mass killings and huge displacements were a painfully common occurrence.

This latest killing brings the total to five massacres in the first two months of this year. Last year, authorities registered 37 mass killings – that's 11 more than in 2007. It's a far cry from the numbers the government registered in 2002: 115 massacres with a total of 680 victims.

But it's hard to boil down violence and fear to statistics, especially if your one of the 30,000 Awás in southern Colombia walking the razor's edge between every known armed group active in Colombia.



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