Tribe Claims 3 Died in Police Crackdown

Colombian police used tear gas to dislodge Indians blocking a rural highway to protest a U.S. oil company’s plans to drill on lands that the tribe considers sacred. Police, however, denied allegations by the 8,000-member U’wa tribe that three children died when some of the demonstrators were chased into a river. The accusations were likely to inflame passions in Colombia and abroad over the planned drilling by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. Gen. Alfonso Arellano, the national police operations director, said the protest near the eastern border with Venezuela was dispersed without incident by 150 riot police sent from the capital, Bogota.