CAMPAIGNING anti-poverty charity War on Want warned yesterday of a “human rights crisis” in Colombia, where striking farmworkers have been attacked and murdered.

The strike organised by the Agrarian, Ethnic and People’s Commune began on May 30 to demand an end to grinding poverty and a say in peace negotiations with Farc rebels.

It opposes free-trade agreements with the US and European Union and the government’s National Development Plan.

The movement held a summit yesterday to protest against state oppression targeting its demonstrations and to call for the government to yield to the peasants’ demands.

On the 10th day of the protests, the Minga movement said three of its leaders had been killed so far and 149 injured by riot police, with many arbitrary arrests made.

It denounced the “systematic violation” of human rights by the the country’s security forces and national and regional authorities.

Sebastian Munoz, War on Want’s senior programmes officer for Latin America, said: “A human rights crisis is unfolding in Colombia. We stand with the people of Colombia who risking their lives to fight for a just and long-lasting peace.”

Previous protests in 2013 and 2014 saw 164 people killed, thousands injured and many more prosecuted on what War on Want said were trumped-up charges.

“These are the same communities that have had to bear the brunt of the conflict, the same communities that have historically been excluded and marginalised,” Mr Munoz stressed.

“We are calling on President [Juan Manuel] Santos and the Colombian state to choose peace, to curb any violence when dealing with protesters, and to respond to the concrete, and legally justified, demands that protesters have made.”

The government is negotiating with left-wing rebel groups Farc) and ELN to end five decades of war.

On Sunday, former president Alvaro Uribe, who is accused of collusion with far-right paramilitary death squads during his eight years in office, urged the Colombian people to reject a probable peace deal in the coming months.

He also opposed a proposed referendum to approve the agreement and its enshrinement in the constitution.