Rights group: 15 Indians shot to death in Ecuadorean jungle

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday February 14, 2008
MYT 7:32:17 AM


Rights group: 15 Indians shot to death in Ecuadorean jungle

QUITO, Ecuador (AP): Fifteen Huaorani Indians living in voluntary isolation in Ecuador's largest nature reserve have been shot to death, an indigenous organization said Wednesday.

Saul Quimutari, health director of the Huaorani Nationality Organization of Ecuador, told The Associated Press that a member of the Tagaeri and Taromenanes tribes in Yasuni National Park informed the organization that the 15 Indians were gunned down Sunday by Colombian loggers.

National police spokesman Patricio Quimzo told the AP that the police had "no information'' about the incident. Logging is prohibited in the Yasuni, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/14/apworld/20080214073140&sec=apworld

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Ecuador's government investigates report of attack on Indians in Amazon jungle
The Associated PressPublished: February 15, 2008

QUITO, Ecuador: Ecuadorean officials are investigating the reported killings of an undetermined number of Huaorani Indians by illegal loggers in an Amazonian nature reserve, Security Minister Gustavo Larrea said Thursday.

"The information was passed to us by certain people in the region, and we are trying to confirm it now," Larrea told the Associated Press.

Huaorani leaders said illegal loggers killed five tribesmen with shotguns in Yasuni National Park — revising their initial estimate of as many as 15 killed.

Several indigenous groups live in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador's largest and a UNESCO biosphere reserve where logging is prohibited. Conflicts with illegal loggers are common, but arrests are rare due to the tribes' isolation.

Ecuador's national indigenous federation and an organization representing the Huaorani denounced the killings Wednesday, after a local tribesman sent word that illegal loggers may have fired at the Indians between Feb. 4 and 6.

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/15/america/LA-GEN-Ecuador-Indians-Killed.php

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Last Updated: Friday, 15 February 2008, 03:40 GMT



Authorities in Ecuador are probing claims that five Amazon tribespeople have been killed by illegal loggers.
The group, from the Taromenane and Tagaeri tribe, was attacked in the eastern Yasuni National Park - a protected area - reports say.

A tribal leader said they had tried to stop the loggers felling trees, and revised downwards an earlier estimate of up to 15 dead.

Correspondents say such clashes are common, with loggers search for trees.

Valuable trees, such as mahogany, are particularly sought after.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7245308.stm

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An article written about this area in January, last year:

Ecuador Bars Oil Extraction, Logging from Indigenous Zone

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2007/2007-01-12-04.asp