Monday, August 4, 2008

Honduras: Nine killed over land dispute

Nine people were killed in the northern Honduran town of Colon during a clash between farmers and landowners. The incident- which occurred yesterday- involved 79-acre farm cooperative which had been occupied by about 400 families. Investigators are looking into the deadly dispute.

According to a campesino leader, there may be as many as fourteen dead from yesterday’s incident, and a local policeman has been blamed as the “chief instigator”:

On Sunday, armed men firing guns stormed into a farming cooperative at Silin. The cooperative's members chased the men into a home and lit it on fire, burning six people to death, leftist lawmaker Rafael Alegria said.

It was unclear if the home's occupants were among those dead. Three men were also found stabbed along a nearby road.

Reuters claims that “conflicts between peasants and landowners are frequent” in Honduras; in 2006, a human rights group claimed that one community leader was forced to sign over lands after being threatened at gunpoint.

Image- fao.org

Sources (English)- MSNBC, Human Rights First, Reuters UK

Sources (Spanish)- Milenio


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