[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 21, 1994]



   FRENCH WOMAN IS RAPED IN PUNJAB--HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES CONTINUE IN 
                               KHALISTAN

                                 ______


                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 21, 1994

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I am extremely concerned about recent 
developments in Punjab, Khalistan, where it has been reported that a 
French woman was gang-raped by the grandson of Chief Minister Beant 
Singh and the young man's bodyguards. Even though the French woman 
identified these men as the rapists, the order to apprehend them was 
not issued for 4 days. It was only after pressure from the French 
Embassy that the authorities arrested the young group.
  Unfortunately, this incident is only one in a long list of abuses. 
Simranjit Singh Mann, one of the foremost Sikh leaders, has been 
charged under India's Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act [TADA]. 
He has been denied his passport and has expressed fear that he might be 
killed. Mr. Mann's crime was speaking at a meeting and endorsing 
independence for the Sikh homeland of Khalistan. As Asia Watch has 
pointed out, ``TADA virtually criminalizes free speech,'' and I believe 
we must evaluate the strength and quality of India's democracy when it 
approves and implements laws such as TADA.
  Ajit Singh Bains, a former justice of the Punjab and Haryana High 
Court and president of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, has been a 
persistent critic of India's human rights abuses in Khalistan. On 
September 15, he was stopped at the airport while attempting to travel 
to Britain. His luggage was seized and he was prevented from leaving 
the country. In a free country, citizens should be allowed to travel 
without these types of repressive restrictions.
  Roughly half a million troops are currently stationed in Khalistan, 
more than the total number of British troops stationed in all of India 
during its colonial days. Reports indicate that more than 115,000 Sikhs 
have been killed in the past decade. Are these kinds of reports 
consistent with democracy or liberty?
  The Sikh nation of Khalistan declared its independence on October 7, 
1987. The Sikh leadership, including Mr. Mann, has declared the 
movement for an independent Khalistan to be peaceful, democratic, and 
nonviolent. Yet India, which likes to call itself ``the world's largest 
democracy'' has charged its leaders with ``disruptive activities'' for 
no more than speaking in support of independence and autonomy.
  I wish to draw my colleagues attention to two pieces of legislation 
which I believe deserve consideration. H.R. 1519, the Justice in India 
Act, would cut off United States development aid to India until human 
rights are respected. House Concurrent Resolution 134 calls for an 
internationally supervised plebiscite in Khalistan so the Sikh nation 
can determine its future in a free and fair vote.
  I also commend the following two items to the attention of my 
colleagues. The first is a press release from the Council of Khalistan 
which relates the story of Justice Bains' arrest. The second is an 
article from the September 17, 1994, Washington Times which discusses 
the human rights standards followed in India. I believe that after 
reviewing this information, many Members will share my view that action 
on this issue should be made a priority.

Justice Bains Denied Exit From India--Government Humiliates, Maintains 
                     Surveillance on Retired Judge

       Washington, DC.--On orders from the Indian Home Ministry, 
     Indian airport security officials denied retired High Court 
     Judge Justice Ajit Singh Bains exit from India on Thursday, 
     September 15. The outspoken Sikh champion for human rights 
     and political freedom attempted to board a flight in Delhi 
     bound for the United Kingdom. Bains was detained at the final 
     security check and humiliated by security guards who 
     discovered his name on an official Home Ministry list 
     forbidding him to leave India. Justice Bains is Chairman of 
     the Punjab Human Rights Organization.
       Like other leaders speaking out for Sikh freedom and human 
     rights, Bains faces continued harassment at the hands of 
     Indian government police. Restrained by what he terms an 
     ``undeclared detention,'' Bains and visitors to his house 
     have been under constant government surveillance. His 
     telephone has been tapped and his movement restricted.
       Recently, the Indian government denied a passport to 
     Simranjit Singh Mann, Sikh political leader and vocal 
     advocate for Sikh freedom, after he made a speech in support 
     of Khalistan. Mr. Mann has faced unrelenting government 
     harassment ranging from the denial of his freedom of movement 
     to imprisonment and torture. Justice Bains, too, has been 
     jailed on numerous occasions.
       Despite the experience of leaders such as Bains, and Mann, 
     India denies any violations of human rights. While in the 
     United States in May, Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao 
     adamantly maintained India's innocence on human rights 
     violations. Independent human rights organizations, however, 
     have exposed a long list of Indian government atrocities and 
     a history of the brutal denial of human freedom. According to 
     Dead Silence: The Legacy of Abuses in Punjab, published by 
     Human Rights Watch/Asia, ``The deliberate use of torture and 
     execution as counter-insurgency tactics was not merely 
     tolerated but actively encouraged by senior government 
     officials.''
       Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of 
     Khalistan, who spoke to Justice Bains by telephone, warns the 
     Indian government not to harm Sikh leaders. ``The eyes of the 
     world are upon you,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``You no longer 
     operate in the vacuum you once enjoyed. The longer you hold 
     Justice Bains and S. S. Mann against their will, the more 
     ridiculous your protestations of innocence look to the world. 
     You have been exposed. Over 115,000 Sikhs have been killed in 
     the struggle for a free Khalistan. No amount of oppression or 
     lies will divert us from the road of independence. If India 
     is the democracy it claims to be, then leaders like Bains and 
     Mann should be allowed free access to the international 
     community. Instead you brutally silence the voice of the Sikh 
     nation, yet seek inclusion among the free nations of the 
     world. Indian can longer maintain its big lie. The time for 
     Sikh freedom is now. Free Khalistan today!''

              [From the Washington Times, Sept. 17, 1994]

                    India Said to Torture Returnees

                      (By Heinz-Rudolf Othmerding)

       New Delhi--When Kuldeep Singh, 21, a Sikh from the northern 
     Indian state of Punjab, stepped off an Aeroflot flight on May 
     28 in New Delhi, he was a healthy man.
       Two days later, Mr. Singh was dead. Upon inspection, his 
     body bore signs of torture.
       Mr. Singh sold flowers in a township near Duesseldorf, 
     Germany, and was not a particularly politically minded man. 
     Seeking only the affluence of the West, he lived in Germany 
     illegally until he was discovered, denied asylum and forced 
     to return to India.
       What in Germany was a routine legal procedure ended in his 
     death in India. Officials blackmailed first Mr. Singh and 
     then his family.
       Despite denials by the Indian police, Western and Indian 
     human rights activists are convinced that Indian deportees 
     returning home after their applications for asylum are 
     rejected abroad are often arrested, tortured and blackmailed.
       And if the victim's relatives cannot scrape together the 
     money demanded by corrupt officials, the deportee might even 
     face death.
       ``If you come back after years in Germany, then the 
     assumption is that you must have either accumulated a lot of 
     money yourself or transferred it to your family in India,'' 
     says Ravi Nair, a well-known Indian human rights activist.
       Shamsher Singh, another deportee from Germany, probably has 
     a Stuttgart-based aid organization and a German journalist in 
     India to thank for his well-being.
       The German organization gave him enough money to cover the 
     bribe that officials were likely to demand, and the 
     journalist managed to retrieve him from the airport.
       When Shamsher Singh was finally allowed to leave the 
     airport with the journalist on Aug. 19, he had already 
     encountered both intelligence and immigration officials. Only 
     the money he brought helped him escape torture, the Punjabi 
     said later.
       A Cologne-based lawyers group has been waiting since Sept. 
     1 for news from Joginder Singh, also deported from Germany.
       Mr. Singh, who was active in the Sikh separatist movement, 
     had been refused asylum in Germany for the first time in 1992 
     and deported to India. According to the lawyers, airport 
     police let him go that time after extorting 50,000 rupees, 
     then about $1,500, from him.
       Mr. Singh subsequently resumed his political activities in 
     Punjab but fled to Germany again after being arrested and 
     tortured. After his second deportation, he vanished without a 
     trace.
       Several European states like Denmark or Switzerland 
     introduced checks to ensure the safe arrival in India of 
     deportees from those countries.
       Embassy staff or Indian contacts, mostly human rights 
     activists, are asked to monitor the arrival in India of 
     unsuccessful applicants for political asylum in the two 
     countries.
       But there is no such system for deportees returning from 
     Germany. Sources at the German Embassy in New Delhi say they 
     hear of deportations only sporadically.
       Deportation procedures are not centralized in Germany, they 
     say, so every city or district can deport people through any 
     third country.
       However, problems are mounting. At the end of 1993, there 
     were 36,000 Indians living in Germany, of whom at least 
     10,000 were under orders to leave the country. Of 12,266 
     applications for asylum in 1993, only six were successful.
       Mr. Nair, the Indian human rights activist, suspects that 
     the Indian Embassy in Bonn alerts airport authorities and the 
     Punjab police the minute it issues the documents to 
     deportees.
       They are awaited in Bombay or New Delhi, and arrest, 
     torture and blackmail frequently follow.

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