TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) -- Hundreds of indigenous demonstrators
                  occupied the Honduran ruins of Copan on Monday to ask for the return of lands
                  promised to them in a 1994 accord and protest the firing of an ethnic rights
                  official.

                  The protesters were adding their voices to those of eight of their brethren who
                  are in the sixth day of a hunger strike.

                  "We have taken the Mayan park of Copan, our ancestral land, in protest of the
                  dismissal of Ethnic and Cultural Patrimony Prosecutor Gilberto Sanchez," a
                  communique from Maya-Chorti protesters said.

                  "We are also here to protest the slow compliance with land accords," for the
                  Chorti, direct descendants of the Maya, the statement said.

                  Some 500 indigenous demonstrators were blocking tourists' access to the
                  popular ruins and the local museum.

                  The Chorti are demanding the return of some 17,300 acres (7,000 hectares) of
                  land, as agreed to in a 1994 accord that included government pledges to build
                  highways, schools and hospitals and to protect the forests on indigenous lands.

                  Government spokesmen questioned the logic of the protest, arguing that a
                  significant amount of the land agreed upon had already been returned.

                  State Prosecutor Roy Medina said the ethnic prosecutor had been fired for being
                  "incapable, negligent and inefficient," and would not be reinstated.

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