Violence in Chiapas - 4 Dead Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Violence in Chiapas - 4 Dead (c) The Associated Press SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, (AP) - Four government supporters were killed in southern Chiapas state in two separate clashes this week, one with supporters of the leftist Zapatista rebels, state officials said Thursday. Two men died and two others were injured in a confrontation Wednesday between Indian peasants supporting the government and those backing the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army, the state public prosecutors office said. The clash, with machetes and gunfire, occurred in the Tzotzil Indian village of Tzanembolom, about 25 miles north of San Cristobal, officials said. In a separate incident Wednesday, two more pro-government peasants were killed in Sitala county, about 30 miles northeast of here. The two leaders of the ruling party-affiliated National Peasant Coordinating Council were killed in an ambush that also injured two other people. Survivors blamed Zapatista supporters, but there was no official corroboration of those claims. More than a dozen people have been killed in Chenalho county, where the first clash occurred, since violence between supporters of the rival groups erupted early this year. Government supporters blame rising tensions on the rebels, who have set up a parallel county government in a nearby village. Human rights groups in San Cristobal de las Casas, however, accuse the government of provoking tensions by setting up pro-government paramilitary groups in the region. More than 5,000 Chol Indian peasants have fled violence in the northern part of Chiapas over the past three years, as armed, government-backed groups began attacking rebel supporters. Zapatista rebels rose up nearly four years ago demanding economic, political and agrarian reforms. At least 145 people died in brief combat; since then, more than 300 people have died in peasant clashes stemming from the rebellion. AP-NY-10-16-97 2328EDT ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-10.17.97-10:28:38-26668