Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A U.N. agency called Thursday for an impartial investigation into the killing of three indigenous men by a military patrol in a remote part of eastern Honduras that is a common transit point for Colombian cocaine.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said three children were also wounded by gunfire at a protest Sunday, the day after soldiers fired on the three men who were in a boat on the Warunta river before dawn in Gracias a Dios province. It called for a probe into both shootings.
Hugo Maldonado, coordinator of the nonprofit Human Rights Committee, said the soldiers used unnecessary force in killing the men.
"According to our investigation, the indigenous men were transporting wood in a small boat and didn't obey the soldiers' order to stop," he said. "They (the soldiers) opened fire on them."
Maldonado said the victims did not stop because they feared the soldiers were drug traffickers. Meanwhile, the soldiers thought the men in the boat were working for drug traffickers.
The military labeled the pre-dawn incident "confusing" in a statement, but said the victims attacked first. It said it was investigating as was the attorney general's office.
Berta Oliva, coordinator of another human rights group, the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, said they did not believe the men in the boat attacked first.
"The soldiers used disproportionate force," she said.
After the shooting, local residents went to the military outpost to protest and partially burned it. The soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to Puerto Lempira.
In 2012, in the same area, a joint operation of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Honduran police resulted in the shooting deaths of four local people. The DEA initially said the victims were drug traffickers, but last year a report by inspectors general of the Justice and State departments found no evidence to support that.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
