BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- A 2,500-member group of Colombian
                  Indians has decided to seek a safe haven in Europe rather than face possible
                  annihilation by their country's Marxist rebels and right-wing death squads.

                  A request for political asylum was made on behalf of the group late
                  Thursday in a letter handed over to diplomats at the Spanish embassy in
                  Bogota, tribal spokesmen said.

                  Government officials could not be reached for comment on the asylum bid,
                  which was thought to be the first of its kind in a conflict that has taken more
                  than 35,000 lives and left over one million people homeless over the last
                  decade.

                  But the tribal spokesmen said similar requests would be made of other
                  European countries, including the Netherlands, in a bid to get the group out
                  of harm's way.

                  Hundreds of the 2,500 Indians seeking to leave Colombia are members of
                  the endangered Embera-Katio community whose tribal homelands are
                  perched along the upper reaches of the Sinu River in northern Cordoba
                  province.

                  The region, where a government-approved hydroelectric project is being
                  built, is the stronghold of Colombia's leading paramilitary group, or death
                  squad, but large numbers of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
                  (FARC) rebels also operate there.

                  Like most of Colombia's 700,000-member Indian groups, the
                  Embera-Katio have asked all groups in the country's long-running internal
                  conflict to stay off their land and respect their neutrality.

                  But at least three Embera-Katio Indians have been killed by gunmen of the
                  left or right so far this year, including a tribal leader murdered last Saturday.

                  Those killings, coupled with threats that armed gangs are preparing to evict
                  them from their land, prompted the decision to seek political asylum,
                  Embera-Katio spokesman Gilberto Achito told reporters Friday.

                  "There are no guarantees for the people to continue living on their territory,
                  because their lives are in danger there," said Achito, who added that threats
                  against the Indians had come from rebels as well as paramilitary gangs.

                  "They want to humiliate and dislodge the indigenous people," he said,
                  adding, "our leaders are being killed because they're fighting for life."

                  Diplomatic sources said the asylum request made before the Spanish
                  embassy was unlikely to be taken seriously, because political asylum can
                  only be requested on a case-by-case basis.

                  But it could step up pressure on the government of President Andres
                  Pastrana to ensure that adequate measures are taken to protect the
                  Embera-Katio and other Indian tribes scattered across Colombia.

                  "It's a community-style request because we can only go collectively and not
                  as individuals," Achito said of the asylum bid. "That's our people's custom."