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Sixteen Indians injured in explosion

March 6, 2007

Sixteen members of the Guayabero tribe in Colombia have been injured after a land mine exploded on their reserve.

The incident occurred after a Guayabero boy found the mine among rubbish left on his people’s reserve by soldiers from Colombia’s Special Forces School.

The incident is the latest in a long line of tragedies caused by the presence of soldiers on the Guayaberos’ reserve. In 2005 nine people were injured in an explosion – one young woman lost both her hands – and a twelve year old boy died in another explosion in 1997.

The reserve was established after the Guayaberos fled the violence of Colombia's drugs war in their traditional territory.

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