[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ASIA REPORT

                                 ______


                            HON. JOE BARTON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 1994

  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following press 
release and excerpts from the Human Rights Watch Asia Report for August 
1994 for my colleagues review.

     Excerpts from the Human Rights Watch/Asia Report (August 1994)

       The Human rights situation in Kashmir is getting worse at a 
     time when international pressure on the Indian government has 
     all but ceased. Indeed, it could be argued that the increase 
     in deaths in custody and other abuses over the last six 
     months is not unrelated to the signals sent by India's one-
     time critics, notably the United States, that human rights 
     would no longer feature prominently in bilateral discussions.
       As the conflict in Kashmir continues into its fifth year, 
     the government of India appears to have stepped up its catch-
     and-kill campaign against Muslim insurgents. As a result, 
     human rights abuses, particularly deaths in custody, have 
     escalated since early 1994.
       For their part, Indian troops continue to summarily execute 
     detainees, kill civilians in reprisal attacks and burn down 
     neighborhoods and villages and collective punishment for 
     those suspected of supporting the militants.
       Torture also continues to be routine. Human rights groups 
     have compiled a list of over fifty interrogation centers 
     where detainees are kept in unacknowledged detention and 
     tortured.
       The security forces routinely defy court orders to produce 
     the detainees, and several thousand habeas corpus petitions 
     filed in these cases remain pending without result, according 
     to the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association. All of these 
     actions are in clear violation of the International Covenant 
     on Civil and Political rights, to which India is a party.
       Although the government claims to have punished security 
     personnel for abuses, to Human Rights Watch/Asia's knowledge 
     not a single soldier has been prosecuted for the murder or 
     torture of a detainee.
       That human rights would be relegated to private discussion 
     only was made clear by the new U.S. ambassador to India, 
     Frank Wisner, in an interview published in the July 15, 1994, 
     issue of India Today.
       In addition, the State Department has repeatedly given 
     India credit for measures the government has not even taken.
       One crucial opportunity to raise human rights is through 
     the United Nations. India should be urged to invite the 
     specialized agencies of the U.N. Human Rights Commission to 
     visit Kashmir and investigate abuses.
       The countries who aid and trade with India have a 
     particular responsibility to ensure that India's potential as 
     a market does not obscure its human rights problem.

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