Chiapas Women Accuse Mexican Army of Beating

08:08 p.m Jan 11, 1998 Eastern

ALTAMIRANO, Mexico, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Mexican rights groups and victims on Sunday accused the army of beating 16 women and causing injury to several of their children in the strife-torn southern state of Chiapas.

The women, Tzeltal Indians, were treated and released from a hospital in this highland town two days after soldiers are alleged to have forcibly entered their remote village in search of illegal weapons.

Some had bruises and cuts on their faces and others showed reporters dark-colored bruises on their stomachs, which they said came from being kicked by soldiers and hit with their rifle butts. Some of the women were pregnant.

``We tried to stop them from entering our village. One soldier hit me with his rifle in the belly,'' Gloria Santis, a pregnant 28-year-old, told Reuters through an interpreter. She speaks only her native Tzeltal tongue.

Another Tzeltal woman said her 7-month-old baby suffered head injuries after the mother was hit in the head by a rock thrown by a soldier and dropped the child.

A spokesman at the 7th Military Region in Chiapas, which covers the troubled state, said he could not discuss the allegations.

The spokesman, who did not want to be identified, said there were army operations in the area on the day in question to enforce federal firearms law, but said he was unwilling to discuss details.

Soldiers have stepped up patrols in communities that support local Zapatista rebels following the Dec. 22 massacre of 45 pro-rebel Indians by paramilitaries.

The killings shocked Mexico and forced the resignation of several high-ranking officials.

A local human rights group called Observers for Peace also denounced the alleged attack, saying in a statement that soldiers on Jan. 9 entered the 10th of May village, a so-called ``autonomous'' community that supports pro-Indian Zapatistas.

After some 45 women of the town formed a blockade to prevent the soldiers from entering, the soldiers were alleged to have forced their way in and searched their homes, breaking valuables and taking money, the statement said.

``The soldiers ... had brought with them sticks of various sizes and a truck with stones, and, using their rifles as well, attacked the women physically and insulted them verbally, calling them 'Indian daughters of whores,'...'' it said.




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