----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 6:15 PM Subject: Colombia Cops Attack Indians Protesting US Oil Drilling STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG Chicago Tribune COPS DISPERSE INDIANS PROTESTING U.S. OIL FIRM'S PLANS FOR DRILLING >From Tribune News Services February 13, 2000 BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Police used tear gas to dislodge Indians blocking a rural highway to protest a U.S. oil company's plans to drill on lands the tribe considers sacred. Police, however, denied charges by the 8,000-member U'wa nation that three children died when some of the demonstrators were chased into a river Friday. The accusations were likely to inflame passions in Colombia and abroad around the planned drilling by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. The U'wa fears the violence plaguing many oil-producing regions in Colombia, where leftist guerrillas bomb oil pipelines and the government stations troops to protect them. Gen. Alfonso Arellano, the national police operations director, said the protest outside the U'wa reserve near the eastern border with Venezuela was dispersed without incident by 150 riot police. If there were any dead, let them "show us" the bodies, Arellano said. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the U'wa said three children died and others were injured or missing after a group of 450 protesters "threw" themselves into a river to escape the police. The statement gave no details on how the children died or their identities. Colombia's government last September granted Occidental the right to conduct exploratory drilling a few miles outside the legal boundaries of the U'wa reserve. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com
