[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]
SIKH LEADERS HARASSED BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT
______
HON. DAN BURTON
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, September 21, 1994
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the Government of India has
struck another blow against democratic principles. They have charged
former Member of Parliament Simranjit Singh Mann under the oppressive
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act [TADA]. Under TADA, anyone can
be detained by Indian security forces for up to 2 years without any
charges being filed. According to Asia Watch, ``TADA reverses the
presumption of innocence, placing the burden on the accused to prove he
is not guilty. This violates every international human rights
standard.''
As if this wasn't bad enough, the government has forcibly prevented
the President of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, Ajit Singh
Bains, from leaving the country to speak at a conference in London. A
retired high court justice, Justice Bains was detained at the final
security checkpoint because his name appeared on an official Home
Ministry list of people forbidden to leave the country. Justice Bains,
like Mr. Mann, is a proponent of a peaceful movement to achieve
independence for Khalistan.
Many of us remember Justice Bain's eloquent testimony before the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus 3 years ago. He detailed brutal
abuses of the most basic liberties by Indian security forces in
Khalistan. Why would the world's largest democracy prohibit a
distinguished former judge from traveling abroad to speak about human
rights? Does a legitimate democracy maintain lists of people who are
prohibited to leave the country because of their advocacy of peaceful
change? Prohibiting people from traveling and seizing their passports
solely because of their political views is a serious violation of
widely recognized human rights standards.
The U.S. Congress is well aware of the struggle of the Sikh people
for freedom and democracy. When Mr. Mann spoke at a Sikh temple in
support of a peaceful movement to achieve freedom for Khalistan, he
exercised what we here would consider his legitimate right to free
speech. But no such right exists for Sikhs or Kashmiris in India. For
advocating a peaceful movement for Sikh freedom, Mr. Mann has been
charged with terrorism.
Mr. Mann's case is not unusual. Neither is that of Justice Bains.
Indian forces have killed, by some estimates, several hundred thousand
Sikhs in Punjab, Christians in Nagaland, and Muslims in Kashmir. A
recent report from Human Rights Watch/Asia states that the Indian
regime has set up at least 200 torture centers throughout Punjab,
Khalistan. One police officer says that, ``torture is used routinely.
During my five years with the Punjab police, I estimate that 4,000 to
5,000 were tortured at my police station alone.'' Another police
officer says, ``Without exception, any person who is detained at the
police station is tortured.'' Sikhs who die of torture are routinely
listed as having died in a fake ``encounter'' with the police.
According to the report, these staged ``encounters'' account for most
of the killings there.
Mr. Speaker, the Indian Government must clean up its act and stop the
atrocities. The charges against Mr. Mann should be dropped, and both
Mr. Mann and Justice Bains should be allowed to travel freely.
It is time for the administration to place sanctions on India. This
Congress must pass H.R. 1519, which will cut off India's development
aid until human rights are respected. We must also pass House
Concurrent Resolution 134, which calls for a free and fair vote to
determine the future of Khalistan. In addition, Congress must approve
House Resolution 144, calling for a free and fair plebiscite in
Kashmir.
I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a number of articles
detailing recent human rights abuses in India.
Council of Khalistan
For immediate release: September 19, 1994.
Washington, DC.
JUSTICE BAINS DENIED EXIT FROM INDIA
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 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. India can no longer maintain its big lie. The time for
Sikh freedom is now. Free Khalistan today!''
____
[From the Tribune, Sept. 8, 1994]
Katia Case: 2 More Cops Held
Chandigarh, September 4.--At least two more cops of the
Punjab Police were arrested today as the incident of
abduction and ``attempt'' to rape of a French national, Ms
Katia, has put the state police in the dock.
The arrests followed another identification parade of
policemen held at Punjab Police * * * in which the victim and
two of her Kenyan friends, who were also beaten up during the
incident, identified the constables.
With this the number of persons who have been held on
charges of abduction and attempt to rape the French girl has
risen to five. Four of these are Punjab policemen while one
is the friend of a VVIP related to a key political figure of
the city.
The police has also impounded the brand new Contessa car
with a Delhi registration number belonging to one of the
friends of the VVIP ward.
The victim, Ms Katia, was today produced before the
Judicial Magistrate, Kharar, to record her statement about
the incident under Section 164 Cr P.C. Her Kenyan friends
also gave a statement to the magistrate.
Senior police officials of the state are reported to have
held meetings in the day to deal with the situation even as
there was no sign of taking any action against the VVIP ward,
who is being blamed as the main culprit.
Ms. Katia was picked up by the gunmen of the VVIP ward and
taken to a heavily guarded house in Chandigarh where she
was allegedly molested.
The state police seems to be on its toes due to the
incident following pressure from the Union Home Ministry to
take action. The ministry is to be sent a detailed report on
the incident by tomorrow.
This has been done following a CPI leader, Mrs. Vimla Dang,
announcing that a notice for call-attention motion has been
given to be brought up in the Assembly when it meets on
Tuesday. She announced that the proceedings of the House
would be stalled to seek action against the guilty.
Meanwhile, the city unit of the Janata Dal has demanded the
resignation of the Chief Minister, Mr. Beant Singh, in view
of the incident.
Khabab (FOC): Katia, the French girl who was molested by a
family member of a senior Punjab Congress leader and some
Punjab policemen, was produced along with her two friends
before the Judicial Magistrate here on Sunday by the police.
According to Mr. Anil Kaushik, advocate for the
complainant, the statements of Katia, Philips and James were
recorded under Section 164 of the Cr P C in which they
narrated the whole incident which happened on the night of
August 31.
Amritsar (UNI): Punjab Chief Minister, Mr. Beant Singh,
said here that he had directed Punjab Police chief K.P.S.
Gill to book the culprits who had allegedly molested French
tourist Katia at Mohali and Chandigarh two days back.
Talking to newsmen after addressing a public meeting at
Jandiala, he said nobody was above the law. He refused to
reveal the name of the VVIP involved in the molestation
saying everything would come to light within a few days.
Phillaur (FOC): Punjab BJP chief Madan Mohan Mittal has
condemned the Mohali incident involving the molestation of a
French girl allegedly by a family member of a senior Congress
leader and some Punjab policemen.
Stating this here today, Mr. Mittal demanded immediate
resignation of the Punjab Chief Minister and a high-level
inquiry by the CBI in this connection. He said the Chief
Minister had no moral right to stay in his office as his
government was involved in a serious allegation.
____
[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 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 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.
____
[From the Washington Times, Sept. 17, 1994]
Temple Shines, but Sikh Anger Survives
(By Heinz-Rudolf Othmerding)
Amritsar, India.--On the night of June 5, 1984, Indian
troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar and killed an
estimated 2,500 people, including many innocent pilgrims.
Ten years later, ``Operation Bluestar,'' which targeted the
holiest shrine of the world's 22 million Sikhs, is all but
forgotten.
Artillery fire destroyed the Akal Takht, the temple's
congregation platform for high priests, and blasted holes in
the extensive temple complex.
During more peaceful times, radical Sikhs under Jarnail
Singh Bhindranwale had been promised much by the government
of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The Punjabis had been assured of their own state capital,
more self-determination and water for their fields. But Mrs.
Gandhi manipulated Mr. Bhindranwale and reneged on her
promises.
Feeling cheated and betrayed, Mr. Bhindranwale launched an
armed separatist struggle against the Indian government--a
fight he was to lose, along with his life, on the night of
June 5.
Two months after Bluestar, Mrs. Gandhi was fatally shot by
her Sikh bodyguards. The assassination unleashed free-for-all
terrorism in India, and Sikhs were slaughtered all over the
country.
A jumbo jet belonging to Air India exploded over the
Atlantic.
Sikhs in Punjab grouped together in increasingly militant
sects and almost turned the war they couldn't win against
India on each other.
At least 25,000 people--three-quarters of them Sikhs--were
killed in the struggle.
``We have not forgotten the insult that was Bluestar and
never will,'' says Inderman Singh of the Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandchak Committee, the advisory council of the Golden
Temple.
Gaping cracks and bullet holes can no longer be seen on the
walls of the Golden Temple, and renovation of the shrine is
almost complete. Its gilded domes gleam in the sunlight, and
pilgrims can be seen filing slowly toward the lake that
surrounds the shrine to bathe in its holy waters.
The men are attired in accordance with the five edicts of
the faith--with ``Kangha'' (comb), ``kacch'' (shorts),
``Kirpan'' (sword), ``kara'' (steel bracelet) and ``kes''
(uncut hair and beard).
The repetitive chant of the Granthi, the chief narrator,
who recites from the Granth Sahib, the holy book written by
Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of Sikhism, reverberates
through the entire complex.
It is barely imaginable that 10 years ago corpses lay
strewn in the beautiful courtyard.
But the conflict simmers on behind the facade of
tranquillity. Few Punjabis accept the new Congress state
government, which came to power Feb. 19, 1992.
``We have to accept that India has defeated our armed
struggle,'' says Amarjit Singh, information officer at the
Golden Temple. ``But why is it that we are still denied the
self-administration and protection of our culture that were
promised to us for long, even in these ostensibly peaceful
times?''
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Title IV of Senate Resolution 4, agreed to by the Senate on February
4, 1977, calls for establishment of a system for a computerized
schedule of all meetings and hearings of Senate committees,
subcommittees, joint committees, and committees of conference. This
title requires all such committees to notify the Office of the Senate
Daily Digest--designated by the Rules Committee--of the time, place,
and purpose of the meetings, when scheduled, and any cancellations or
changes in the meetings as they occur.
As an additional procedure along with the computerization of this
information, the Office of the Senate Daily Digest will prepare this
information for printing in the Extensions of Remarks section of the
Congressional Record on Monday and Wednesday of each week.
Meetings scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 1994, may be found in
the Daily Digest of today's Record.
MEETINGS SCHEDULED
SEPTEMBER 23
11:00 a.m.
Veterans' Affairs
Business meeting, to consider the nomination of Kenneth
W. Kizer, of California, to be Under Secretary of
Veterans Affairs for Health, and other pending calendar
business.
SR-418
SEPTEMBER 28
9:00 a.m.
Office of Technology Assessment
Board Meeting, to consider pending business.
EF-100, Capitol
10:00 a.m.
Labor and Human Resources
To hold hearings on Federal job training programs.
SD-430
10:30 a.m.
Foreign Relations
To hold hearings on the Convention on the Conservation
and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central
Bering Sea (Treaty Doc. 103-27).
SD-419
SEPTEMBER 29
9:30 a.m.
Energy and Natural Resources
To hold hearings to examine the Agreement for Cooperation
on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy Between the United
States and the European Atomic Energy Community
(Euratom).
SD-366
OCTOBER 13
9:30 a.m.
Governmental Affairs
Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee
To hold oversight hearings on the Navy's mismanagement of
the sealift tanker contract.
SD-342