Rights group decries India's warning on Maoist support

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- A human rights group has slammed India for its warning to citizens supporting Maoist rebels, who are considered the greatest internal security threat by the nation.

India's home ministry said Thursday that nonprofit groups and intellectuals found helping the banned insurgents spread their ideology would be prosecuted under the country's laws.

The rebels aim to overthrow the government and "have no place in India's parliamentary democracy," the federal home ministry said.

Indian officials insist that the left-wing insurgents are hampering development in areas under their control, killing innocent civilians and destroying infrastructure.

But the U.S.-based rights group decried the warning as an attempt to silence political speech.

"The Indian government should think twice before trying to silence political discussion and demanding endorsement of its views on Maoist groups," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

"The recent views expressed by the Indian government against so-called sympathizers could be understood as carte blanche by local authorities to harass and arrest critics of Indian government policy."

Yeah them Maoist rebels are real angels

They robbed by brother, stole his coat and all and left him freezing in the Himalayas

He is lucky it stopped there.

These idiots killed a couple hundred Indian military recently.

Discover the Networks

"..Human Rights Watch (HRW) was founded in 1978 as "Helsinki Watch," to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords. Among its founders were Bob Bernstein, CEO of Random House publishers; Aryeh Neier, the current President of the Open Society Institute, a former Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society in 1959; Orville Schell, Dean of the University of California at Berkley graduate school of journalism and a leftwing journalist; and Jeri Laber, a writer and political activist. In the 1980s, the organization developed a number of "Watch" committees, including Americas Watch, Asia Watch, and Africa Watch, which ultimately united under the umbrella of the U.S.-based HRW in 1988. Today HRW states that its "principle advocacy strategy is to shame offenders by generating press attention and to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on them by enlisting influential governments and institutions" on a wide array of issues.

Even as it documented abuses in the Soviet Union, HRW directed much of its censure in the 1980s at the United States. Particularly, the organization denounced the Reagan administration's policy of combating Soviet expansionism in Latin America by aiding anti-Communist governments and opposition forces. In her autobiography, The Courage of Strangers, Jeri Laber noted that "Americas Watch reports … were eagerly read in the United States by people who deplored the Reagan policies." Aryeh Neier, who served as Executive Director of HRW for 12 years, would later write that Americas Watch (AW) could deflect charges of political bias against the Reagan administration's policies because it was also critical of Communist regimes. Neier explained that this "made it difficult for [the Reagan administration] to portray us as Soviet dupes." ..."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.