SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Chile beefed up its Easter Island forces Saturday as it evicts squatters from government buildings built on the islanders' ancestral properties, officials said.
The Independent on Sunday reported dozens of people had been wounded in clashes with police since Friday. A military aircraft brought more riot police to the island Saturday, the British newspaper said.
The Save Rapa Nui Web site said Chilean police used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a gathering of civilians Friday. Some of the Rapa Nui villagers were beaten with batons, the Web site said. The police were assailed with rocks in return.
The confrontation came a day after a government official asked the villagers to evacuate the buildings they have occupied for months, a request they refused.
The island, a popular tourist destination renowned for its mysterious huge carved stone heads, has about 5,000 people and is more than 2,000 miles off the west coast of Chile, which has laid claim to it since 1888.
The Web site said the Rapa Nui are seeking title to land occupied by their ancestors.
"It's a rightful claim," Santi Hitorangi, a documentary filmmaker who said he was hit by police buckshot, told The Independent. "We are not asking the government for anything else."
