Bayan, ILPS condemn arrest, repression of fellow activists in India

In a display of solidarity with anti-displacement activists recently arrested in India, members of the multi-sectoral alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) – Philippines today held a protest action near the Indian embassy in Makati City.

Last month, four Indian activists – Davendar Das, Protima Das, Armin Maharana and Pradeep – were arrested by the state government of Orissa in India based on trumped up charges including alleged links with the underground Maoists. American David Pugh, a social scientist and a member of the ILPS – US, was also arrested with them and detained by the state police for nine hours.

Reportedly, they were all psychologically tortured.

“We want to let the government of India know that the Filipino people strongly condemn these arrests and the ruthless political repression happening in Orissa”, said Bayan international officer Rita Baua. She added that the four Indian activists must be immediately and unconditionally released.

State repression has recently intensified in the state of Orissa, where thousands of activists and poor farmers have been jailed and accused of false charges while some have been killed. The political crackdown has occurred amid growing resistance from the people of Orissa against giant foreign corporations, including mining companies, that have been displacing them from their communities and destroying their environment and livelihood.

Baua likened the state government of Orissa to the Arroyo administration which is notorious internationally for its human rights atrocities including extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances of activists.

“Filipinos continue to struggle against the systematic violation of our civil and political rights under the Arroyo administration. Thus as a people, we should feel enraged when we hear that such gross violation of human rights also happen elsewhere. We should be in solidarity with the people of Orissa in asserting and defending our rights and fighting for justice”, Baua noted. #

Himpad Mangumalas, Spokesperson, KAMP (Organization of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines)

Willy Marbella, Deputy Secretary General, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), or Peasant Movement in the Philippines

 Rita Baua, International officer, BAYAN

 (New Patriotic Alliance)