Honduras: No more violence against peasant groups of the Bajo Aguán region!
Heidelberg/Germany, 04.04.2010: FIAN International expresses its deep concern about increasing violence against members of the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA - Movimiento Unificado Campesino del Aguán). According to the latest information, police and paramilitary groups might conduct forcible evictions and repression actions against peasant groups of the Bajo Aguán region within the next few days. This would result in more violence, deaths and poverty. Three peasant leaders of MUCA have already been murdered during the past two months.
Since the coup d´etat, human rights have been repeatedly violated with total impunity in Honduras. Citizens who campaign for the return to democracy are attacked, while members of the peasant movement, independent journalists and others demanding a fair resolution of the Bajo Aguán agrarian conflict are victims of increasing violence. In view of these events, FIAN International calls on competent national and international actors to contribute to find a solution to this conflict which is coherent with the human rights obligations of the State of Honduras. In particular, FIAN International urges the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the situation in the Bajo Aguán region.