Radio Mundo Real

The deadline set by the organizations that defend native peoples in Colombia and Ecuador for the bodies of the Awá indigenous people to appear expired on Monday, at 6 pm. They were murdered by the Revolutionary Armed Forces from Colombia (FARC) in early February.

In a communiqué signed, among other groups, by the Indigenous Regional Council from Cauca and the Federation of Awá Centres from Ecuador, they explain that in spite of the fact that several days have passed since the massacre (justified by the guerrilla group by saying the indigenous people were collaborating with the Colombian army), the bodies of the Awa people haven´t appeared, and this is why the groups organized a Humanitarian Meeting to recover them.

“We are extremely worried about the fact that the legal and military authorities haven´t succeeded in locating the bodies of our murdered brothers and sisters. The government hasn´t even facilitated to take care of the confined population and the orphans. On the contrary, they want to take advantage of the tragedy, in order to obtain the support of the indigenous authorities in the persecution of the insurgent groups, prioritizing the logic of war instead of the humanitarian actions established by the international law in these cases”, states the communiqué.

The indigenous organizations have also expressed that the murder of the Awa people was an action of cruelty, because the victims were a helpless population “who had always declared themselves unconnected with the war” taking place in Colombia.

This is why on Tuesday, tens of indigenous people went to the forests in Nariño department to find the bodies of those who were massacred for being around a social and armed clash in which they didn´t participate and didn´t agree with.