India briefs EU about violence perpetrated by Naxals

New Delhi: India on Wednesday briefed the European Union about the violence perpetrated by Naxals and urged it to ensure that the rebels do not get support from the organisations based in its member countries.

In a meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs sensitised EU representatives about the violence being carried out by CPI (Maoist), which killed more than 8,100 people since 2001. The move came after CPI(Maoist) had recently thanked more than two dozen organisations in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Spain, Britain, Brazil, Canada and Philippines which took part the November 24, 2012 conference in Hamburg supporting of the "people`s war in India". The MEA took the initiative after the Ministry of Home Affairs provided supporting documents about the terror being carried out by the Naxals in nine states, which resulted in killings, maiming of people, destruction of public and private properties, forests and natural resources. During the meeting, the representatives of the EU and Euro-Asia division of the MEA discussed issues concerning human rights in the region. Following an appeal of the International Committee to Support of the People`s War in India and the Hamburg-based League against Imperialist Aggression, people from different parts of the world attended the Hamburg conference to exchange views, support the "struggle of the Indian people against imperialism, semi-feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism". More than 300 people attended the conference. Government has termed the activities of Naxals as serious impediment to the nation-building process as they destroyed thousands of development and infrastructure facilities and kidnapped proactive, sincere district collectors to prevent development from reaching the poor.