Farmers group call a stop on US-backed counter-insurgency and genocide in India

The Filipino farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) called a stop on US-backed counter-insurgency operation in India, dubbed as “Operation Green Hunt.”

“The operation has displaced 20,000 million Indian farmers,” said Antonio Flores, KMP Spokesperson and Tanggol Magsasaka Co-Convenor (Peasant Network for Land, Justice and Human Rights) in a press statement.

“This is unimaginable in our country, thus, it simply means that the Indian people, particularly the farmers are now facing the biggest terror attack on their rights to land,” said Flores.

The group said that the Indian armed forces, supported by the mercenary Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) has wreaked havoc in peasant communities in Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. These regions are those targeted by the Indian government for land-scale mining and industrial projects for foreign investors. The government is planning to declare the mineral-rich and highly productive agricultural areas as special economic zones and the problem they are facing at present is the consolidated presents of “Naxalites” or the large group of rebels who are protecting their lands from landgrabbing and destruction.

“The Naxalites led millions of Indian farmers to protect their lands, thus, the Indian government backed by the United States are executing Operation Green Hunt, where armed forces, with their employed mercenary groups to search and destroy Naxalite forces, ‘clear and sanitize, hold the territory’ for the development project to commence,” said Flores.

“The military operations are supported by U.S. ammunitions and arms, choppers and technology, they are doing a ‘Taliban’ and ‘Pakistan’ model of waging war against the Indian people,” he added.

“Operation Green Hunt is genocide targeting not just the Naxalite rebels, but also those unarmed farmers as they are treated as outsiders or foreigners, it is also composed of killings, torture, enforced disappearances, rape, displacements and destruction of properties, all forms of human rights abuses,” Flores said.

“There were cases of murder of elderly and sick, breast cut-off, beheading, burning in hot oil, baby with fingers and tounge cut-off, also group of women being raped by police forces,” he added.

The group said that Filipino and Indian farmers are facing the same as the Arroyo government is implementing Oplan Bantay Laya, composed of extra-judicial killings (EJK), enforced disappearances and ‘arrest and detention.’ The group added that since Arroyo took power in 2001, 561 farmers have been victims of EJK, where 119 are KMP leaders. Also, U.S. military forces are both backing the Indian and Philippine armed forces. It is clear the U.S. are encouraging puppet governments to annihilate their people who are opposing anti-people and pro-imperialist government policies.

“We support the Indian people’s struggle against Operation Green Hunt, against the Indian puppet government and U.S. imperialism. We will hold ceaseless protest at the Indian embassy until they realize that the whole world are supporting the Indian people and condemning their actions,” said Flores.

“We condemn to the fullest, the massive militarization in India, which resulted to countless human rights abuses. We will expose brutal actions against the Indian people, hold the Indian government and U.S. imperialism liable for their terror strategy and tactics,” Flores called.#