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WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2002

A United States grand jury indicted a Colombian rebel group on Tuesday for the murders of three Native American activists killed while protesting oil drilling on traditional Indian land.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the indictment against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and six members at a press conference in Washington, D.C. He said Terence Freitas; Ingrid Washinawatok of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin; and Lahee'Enae Gay, a Native Hawaiian, went to the Andean nation "to do good and instead met with great evil."

"Today's action is a step toward ridding our hemisphere of the narco-terrorism that threatens our lives, our freedom and our human dignity," he said.

FARC and senior leaders of the group were charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, using a firearm during a crime of violence and aiding and abetting, according to the grand jury. The indictment said FARC treated the three activists as military targets and therefore could be prosecuted under U.S. law.

Yet the work Freitas, Washinawatok and Gay were doing for the U'wa Nation was hardly warlike. They traveled to northeastern Colombia in early 1999 to oppose oil drilling by Occidental Petroleum near the tribe's reservation and to help on other social and environmental projects.

Like other Native activists, they ran into trouble with the FARC, which frequently targets Indian communities for their land and natural resources. Under orders reportedly issued from top leaders of the group, the three were kidnapped and later killed on March 4, 1999.

Their bullet-ridden and blindfolded bodies were later found dumped just over the border in Venezuela.

Bringing the persons responsible for the murders will be difficult if not impossible. Last September, German Briceno was convicted for the murders by the Colombian government.

But Briceno's sentence of 40 years isn't being carried out because he can't be located. Other people charged in the U.S. indictment are only known by their first names.

The indictment returned in federal district court in Washington represents an expansion of a global war on terrorism and related activities. Last month, Ashcroft announced indictments of three FARC members on charges of cocaine distribution.

The current case also highlights a repeated criticism the U.S. has lodged against Colombia. For two years in a row, the State Department in its annual report on human rights said the killers of the activists needed to be brought to justice.

The department noted particular problems facing tribes at the hands of groups like the FARC. "Members of indigenous communities continued to be victims of all sides in the internal conflict, and a number of them were killed," the year 2001 report said.

Related Documents:
Ashcroft Announces Indictment (4/30)

Relevant Links:
Friends & Relatives of the People, Ingrid Washinawatok, Terence Freitas and Lahe'ena'e Gay - http://www.ienearth.org/colombia.html

Related Stories:
U.S. cites abuses of indigenous rights (3/5)
Colombian conviction said not enough (9/13)
Conviction for murder of Indian activists (9/11)
US criticizes indigenous rights worldwide (2/27)