[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 18, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

                                 ______


                           HON. PETER T. KING

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 1994

  Mr. KING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concern over the 
terrible persecution of the Sikh people in Punjab, Khalistan by the 
Indian Government. This organized campaign of oppression has resulted 
in the deaths of thousands of Sikh men, women and children, and the 
imprisonment without trial and torture of thousands more.
  As a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, I am deeply 
concerned by the hundreds of reports of government-sponsored atrocities 
in Punjab, Khalistan. According to Amnesty International, ``each year 
scores of people `disappear' in Punjab among the thousands of political 
prisoners detained in the state. State complicity in such practices is 
evident from a clear pattern of official cover-up.'' The 1994 State 
Department Human Rights Report on India states that between 1991 and 
1993, over 41,000 cash bonuses were awarded to police officers for 
killing Sikh militants.
  This government-run campaign of oppression, imprisonment, and murder 
has many parallels to the illegal British occupation of the six 
northeastern counties of Ireland. Under both systems, a religious 
minority is denied its basic human rights and a people are denied their 
right to self-determination.
  I have written to President Clinton to urge him to address these 
issues during his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. As 
the world's largest democracy and lone superpower, the United States of 
America has a moral obligation to protest the intolerable human rights 
abuses taking place in Punjab, Khalistan at the hands of the Indian 
Government.

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