At Least 30 Dead in Amazon Clan Attack in Ecuador
Amazon tribesmen killed at least 30 people in an apparent revenge attack against a rival group in Ecuador, an indigenous leader said Friday, as the government pledged an investigation.
Citing information from people who participated in the attack, President Cahuetipe Yeti, of the Huaorani Nationality, said children were among the dead.
The new death toll is higher than the 18 fatalities cited to AFP a day earlier by the group's vice president, Gilberto Nenquimo.
According to Huaorani leaders, several members of the clan attacked a settlement of the Taromenane clan on March 29 in retaliation for the March 5 spearing deaths of a Huaorani leader and his wife.
Yeti was speaking by telephone from the secluded village of Yarentaro, in eastern Ecuador, where the incident occurred. He said he traveled there on Thursday with Governor Rosario Cortez.
Cortez said in a press release he was searching for more details to clarify the incident, adding that the Huaorani had pledged to cooperate with his investigation.
But earlier Friday, Justice Minister Carmen Simone said the government had conducted several flybys of the area and did not find any evidence of the raid.
"What we have seen is the existence of malocas (large huts) in good condition. There were no malocas in bad condition or (that had been) burned," Simone told reporters.
An overland expedition was deployed to locate the site of the alleged massacre, she added.
Simone also confirmed that the Huaorani were holding two Taromenane girls hostage.
Nenquimo had said Thursday Huaorani leaders had negotiated with the attackers so that the two girls -- aged between eight and nine years old -- would be returned to their clan to avoid further reprisals.
This type of attack is common among tribes in the vicinity of Yasuni National Park. A 2003 raid allegedly conducted by the Huaorani against a Taromenane settlement left 23 women and children dead.
There are no official figures on the two tribes, but Nenquimo estimated they number about 200 members together.
Source: Agence France Presse
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