Thousands of native Indians of Colombians holding sticks and white flags took part in a peace march towards the town of Toribio. This town has been under siege by FARC rebels.

The organisation that unites the native Indian population of Colombia held this peace march in this town in the mountains of southern Colombia so that Marxists and paramilitaries forces would withdraw from their lands.

"We will not be forced to flee from our lands by war. We are going to unite and ask the parties in the war to leave our lands", declared Feliciano Valencia, one of the Indian leaders.

FARC attacked Toribio twice in the last few days. These attacks condemned by Human Rights Watch and the UN caused the death of three policemen and one boy and injured thirty.

The American Indian population of Colombia is often caught in the middle of battles between left wing rebels and paramilitaries. An Indian leader stated last august that a hundred of his people were killed last year, the majority of them by the paramilitaries.

Some native communities from south Colombia have chosen a tactic of passive resistance with mixed results. In this way a group of 2000 Indians forced FARC in 2003 to releases a missionary whom they had kidnapped.

In 2002 Toribio became the symbol of this passive resistance when unarmed civilians chased hundreds of FARC members who had attempted to capture dozens of policemen.