Cultural Survival strongly condemns last week's massacre of 17 members of the indigenous Awá community allegedly committed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Among the victims were two women and a child. Another ten people are reported by the National Organization of Indigenous Persons (ONIC) to also have been killed this week. The Awa, who live on the western Ecuador-Colombia border, have been harassed, displaced, and murdered by armed forces for decades. The frequency of these grave human rights violations are causing some to call it genocide and accuse the government of not protecting its peoples.
The Awá are not the only indigenous community in Colombia to be affected by the ongoing conflict. The National Organization of Indigenous Persons (ONIC) recently announced that 32 indigenous ethnic groups are at risk of disappearing, and 18 are at risk of becoming physically and culturally extinct in the near future.
