Indian hosts of slain U.S. activists vow revenge Story-Date: 08:13 p.m. PST Sunday , March 7, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------ Indian hosts of slain U.S. activists vow revenge By Vivian Sequera Associated Press Writer CUBARA, Colombia (AP) -- Indian tribal leaders say they have no doubt leftist rebels were responsible for the slayings of three Americans in Colombia and are promising to exact revenge. Members of the rebel group neither admitted nor categorically denied Sunday that they were involved, but promised an investigation. An outraged U'wa Indian leader, Luis Eduardo Caballero, did not specify how revenge would be carried out by his tribe, whose members are not known to carry weapons. The American activists were on a mission to help the U'wa organize schools on its reservation. "We are going to identify and directly punish" those responsible, Caballero said Saturday during an interview with The Associated Press just outside the tribe's reservation in northeastern Colombia. The U.S. govenrment and Colombia's anti-kidnapping czar, Jose Alfredo Escobar, also have blamed Colombia's oldest and largest leftist rebel group -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- for the killings of Indian activists Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe'ena'e Gay and environmentalist Terence Freitas. Escobar cited military intelligence intercepts of alleged radio communications of guerrillas holding the kidnapped Americans, whose bodies were found Thursday, bound and blindfolded, just across the border in Venezuela. However, a FARC senior commander told reporters Sunday in a rebel-controlled area of the country's south that the group was innocent in the killings. "At this point, we're sure that the FARC had no responsibility" in the deaths of the Americans, Raul Reyes, a member of the group's seven-member ruling junta, said in San Vicente del Caguan. Reyes attributed the killings to "enemies of peace" without specifying who might have been responsible. He said the FARC would conduct an investigation and said "drastic measures" would be taken if rebels were found responsible. Colombia's right-wing paramilitary leadership issued a statement Sunday denying involvement. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia said it had no disputes with the U'wa and no units in the area. Paramilitary groups are active in Arauca state, not far from Cubara, but this 60-square-mile municipality and the adjacent area where the three Americans were kidnapped Feb. 25 are squarely under FARC control, according to U'wa leaders and government forces. The killings have perplexed Colombians because they could spoil recent rebel efforts to improve their image, engage the government in peace talks and improve relations with Washington. Washinawatok, 41, was a member of the Menominee nation of Wisconsin. Gay, 39, directed the Hawaii-based Pacific Cultural Conservancy International, and Freitas, 24, who had recently moved to New York City from California, had worked with the U'wa for more than two years. Freitas had championed the U'wa's legal battle to prevent Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum from drilling for oil on the indigenous group's traditional lands. A friend of Freitas at the U'wa Defense Working Group, Steve Kretzmann, said Sunday by telephone from an environmental conference in Eugene, Ore., that Freitas had been followed during a visit last year by people he believed to be paramilitaries, who Kretzmann alleged are allied with oil companies in the area. He said Freitas had also received telephoned anonymous death threats at his home in Oakland, Calif., by people who told him "to back off or die." ------------------------------------------------------------