[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 93 (Thursday, June 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1184-E1185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE GOLDEN TEMPLE MASSACRE: SELF DETERMINATION AND INDEPENDENCE FOR
KHALISTAN
______
HON. PHILIP M. CRANE
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 7, 1995
Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of my
colleagues the terrible conditions that the people of Khalistan must
endure on a daily basis. June 3-6 marks the 11th anniversary of the
Golden Temple Massacre, where the Indian army massacred thousands of
Sikhs. The situation has not improved, and the Indian police routinely
use torture, murder, and rape to oppress the Sikh people. This
religious intolerance and ethnic warfare amounts to genocide and must
stop.
We need only look at the former Soviet Union to understand why a
society based on ethnic repression cannot work. After the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the republics were finally able to break free and
exist in peaceful democratic states. It has been predicted that India
will suffer the same fate and it is our duty to support and encourage
the people of the Sikh Nation. The following remarks by Dr. Gurmit
Singh Aulakh should be read to fully understand the importance of the
situation.
Council of Khalistan,
Washington, DC, June 3, 1995.
Remarks of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President, Council of
Khalistan, on the Eleventh Anniversary of the Golden
Temple Massacre, at Washington, DC.
I am glad to see so many people her today. As you know, the
Sikh Nation celebrated its 296th birthday this past Vaisakhi
Day. That was a joyous occasion; today is a sad one. We all
know about the oppression the Sikh Nation has suffered under
India's tyrannical occupation of our homeland, Khalistan. At
least 120,000 Sikhs have been murdered in India since 1984.
Tens of thousands of Sikhs remain in prison. In many rural
areas, where the killings are most frequent, whole villages
are emptied of their most able bodied young men.
The bloody massacre we commemorate today helped to clarify
for the Sikh Nation its true place in Hindustan's sham
``democracy.'' The oppression and bloodshed inflicted on the
Sikh Nation by the brutal Indian tyrants make it crystal
clear that there is no place for Sikhs in India. For
ourselves and for out children, we must liberate Khalistan.
Only a free and independent Khalistan will insure that the
Sikh Nation can live in peach, prosperity, and freedom.
Freedom for Khalistan is coming soon. It is inevitable. Dr.
Jack Wheeler of the Freedom Research Foundation, who
predicted the Soviet collapse, predicted almost a year ago
that within ten years, India will cease to exist as we know
it.
When Sikhs read about India's recent destruction of one of
Kashmir's most sacred mosques, we felt a familiar pain
remembering how we felt when thousands of our Sikh brethren
were slaughtered in the Golden Temple massacre.
In the country that bills itself as ``the world's largest
democracy,'' military forces are being used to attack the
faith, identity, and even the very being of the Sikh nation.
But instead of breaking the Sikh nation, as the tyrants of
Hindustan had hoped, it has led to a resurgence of the Sikh
faith in our struggle for dignity and
freedom. The Golden Temple massacre crystallized a desire in
the Sikh nation for a free and sovereign Khalistan.
As you all know, today marks the anniversary of that act of
wanton desecration. From June 3 through 6, 1984, 15,000
troops of the Indian army launched a surprise military attack
on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest shrine of the
Sikh people. Simultaneously, they attacked 38 other Sikh
temples throughout Punjab, Khalistan. These attacks, timed on
a holy day for the Sikh nation, left 20,000 Sikhs dead. Many
innocent, unarmed men, women and children, who had come only
to pray on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev
Ji, were gunned down in the very temples in which they sought
peace and solace.
The operation took 72 hours to complete. A news blackout in
Punjab was initiated immediately before the attack. In the
Temple complex itself, hundreds of Sikhs were forced into
rooms designed to hold no more that 20 or 30 people. Most
died of asphyxiation. Many Sikh women were raped before being
killed.
In one episode, one hundred Sikh boys, students at the
temple who were between 8 and 12 years old, were lined up
along the sacred pool that surrounds the Temple. The Indian
army officers asked each boy, one by one, if he supported
Khalistan. One by one, each boy would cry out Bulleh So
Nihal! (``Everyone cry out and be contented!''), and the rest
would respond Sat SRI Akal (``God is Truth!''). One by one,
each boy was shot in the head. Yet the Indian regime claimed
that ``Not a single woman or child was wounded in the
operation proper at the hands of the Army personnel.''
Other Sikhs were herded together, their turbans were
removed and used to tie their hands behind their backs. They
were blindfolded and their unshorn beards were stuffed into
their mouths. They were then killed by machine gun fire.
Bodies were piled together and shipped to nearby Gobindgarh
fort, where they were drenched in kerosene and burned. The
stench of smoldering bodies permeated in the area for two
weeks. Sant Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikhs lost their
lives.
The damage to the Temple complex was extensive. We cannot
forget how the Akal Takht, the throne of timeless God, was
severely damaged and the Temple's library building was
destroyed. Priceless original manuscripts written by the
Gurus were burnt. The Golden Temple itself was riddled with
bullet holes, many precious stones inlaid upon its walls
removed by Army personnel.
In the mopping up operations, the Indian forces planted
sophisticated weapons inside the Golden Temple in an effort
to legitimize the action. The Golden Temple was utterly
desecrated. In the 400-year history of the Golden Temple, no
ruler had done the kind of damage the Indian Government meted
out in the 72-hour massacre. The Guru Granth Sahib, the holy
book of the Sikh religion, had bullet holes in it. This is
Indian religious tolerance.
Eleven years later, we remember. The Sikh nation can never
forget the brutal massacre and desecration that took place
during those dark days. We cannot forget, and the memory
reminds us that we must take back our homeland from the
tyrannical Indian regime. We must liberate Khlistan from the
grip of oppression, and we should do so very soon. It is our
destiny. Raj Karega Khlasa! Khalistan will be free.
Eleven years later, the killing has not stopped. Virtual
martial law and press blackouts have been in place almost
continuously [[Page E1185]] since 1984. In November 1984,
after Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi, Congress party and government sponsored rioting broke
out in cities all over India. 40,000 Sikhs lost their lives,
20,000 Sikhs in New Delhi alone. Sikhs were pulled out of
shops, homes, trains and buses, and burned alive. For three
days, television stations throughout India, all State
controlled, aired the simple message, Blood for Blood.
Indian newspapers recently reported that 25,000 bodies have
been cremated and listed as unclaimed by the Indian regime
since 1990. In Amritsar district alone, over 6000 bodies were
listed as unidentified. This is one of 13 districts in
Punjab. A mass grave which held the remains of 400 Cambodians
shook the world, as it should have. Why does the mass
cremation of 25,000 in Punjab, Khalistan, get ignored? These
Sikhs were brutally tortured and murdered by the Indian
police, then cremated to hide the evidence.
Sikhs are not the only victims. Indian ``democracy'' has
murdered over 150,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, over
43,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands
of Assamese, Manipuris, and other tribal people. According to
the State Department's 1994 report on human rights, between
1991 and 1993 the Indian regime paid over 41,000 cash
bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. Many
people simply ``disappear.'' It is the great unknown
holocaust.
These atrocities are part of a pattern of oppression by the
corrupt Indian regime. According to the Indian magazine
Sunday, for every case of human rights violations that is
reported, another thousand go unreported.
I am sure that you know what happened to Simranjit Singh
Mann. On December 26, Sardar Mann made a speech calling for a
peaceful, democratic, nonviolent movement to liberate
Khalistan. He asked the 50,000 Sikhs in his audience to raise
their hands if they agreed with him. All 50,000 did so. For
this blatant act of free speech, Mann was arrested under the
so-called ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA).
Although the regime has repealed TADA, and despite a Supreme
Court ruling that asking for Khalistan is not a crime, Mann
remains in a windowless cell almost five months after he was
arrested. This is typical of the kind of tyranny practiced
against the Sikh nation by the Indian regime.
According to the government of India, all Sikhs are
terrorists. The regime has even outlawed the Sikh baptismal
ceremony of amrit. Most Sikhs have a friend or relative who
has been imprisoned, tortured or killed by police, ostensibly
because they are terrorists. This is the myth that justifies
the Indian government's bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The world is beginning to realize that Sikh terrorism is a
myth. On November 6, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported
that the Indian regime paid the late governor of Punjab,
Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to foment terrorism in Punjab and
Kashmir, then blame it on ``Sikh militants.'' Again, Indian
``democracy'' is exposed.
This oppression must stop. On October 7, 1987, the Sikh
nation declared its independence from India, forming the
separate country of Khalistan. Sikhs ruled Punjab from 1710
to 1716 and from 1765 to 1849. Punjab belongs to the Sikhs.
Sikhs own 95 percent of the land in Punjab, Khalistan. Over
two-thirds of the population of Punjab is Sikh. No Sikh has
ever signed the Indian constitution. In the Indian-run
elections in Punjab, Khalistan, in February 1992, 96 percent
of the Sikhs there did not vote, according to India Abroad.
India's occupation of Khalistan is destroying our homeland.
The Sikh Nation has made its desire for freedom clear. We
want our country back. We want to live in peace, and we want
to live apart from India in a free, democratic society.
Every day the world is exposed to the brutality of India's
occupation of Khalistan. In May 1994, Human Rights Watch/Asia
and Physician for Human Rights released a report entitled
Dead Silence: The Legacy of Abuses in Punjab. The report
quotes a police officer as saying, ``Once I became a police
officer in Punjab, I realized that torture is used routinely.
During my five years with the Punjab police, I estimate 4,000
to 5,000 were tortured at my police station alone.'' Another
policeman was quoted as saying that 500 people were killed at
his police station in five years. At least 200 of these
torture centers currently operate in Indian-occupied
Khalistan.
In 1947, when India achieved independence, three nations
were to receive power. The Hindus got India, the Muslims got
Pakistan, and the Sikh Nation was to receive a state of our
own. But the Sikh leadership at the time made the critical
mistake of taking our share with India on the solemn promises
of Gandha and Nehru that Sikhs would enjoy ``the warm glow of
freedom'' in Punjab and that no law affecting Sikh rights
would be passed without Sikh consent. Almost immediately,
those promises were broken and the repression of our people
began.
India is not one nation. It is a conglomeration of many
nations thrown together for administrative purposes by the
British. It is the last vestige of colonialism. With 18
official languages, India is doomed to disintegrate just as
the former Soviet Union did. Freedom for Khalistan and all
the nations living under Indian occupation is inevitable. The
Sikh Nation's demand for an independent Khalistan is
irrevocable, irreversible, and nonnegotiable. But we are
willing to sit down with the Indian regime anytime to
demarcate the boundaries of Khalistan. It is time for India
to recognize the inevitable and withdraw from Khalistan.
An independent Khalistan will help make South Asia nuclear-
free. Punjab, Khalistan, produces 73 percent of India's wheat
reserves and 48 percent of its rice reserves. As a country
where it takes three days' pay to buy a box of cereal, India
will have to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty because it
needs food. Once India disarms, Pakistan will have no reason
not to do so as well. Khalistan will sign the NPT and a 100-
year friendship treaty with the United States.
In the past eleven years, there have been thousands of
cases of Sikh deaths and torture at the hands of Indian
police and security forces. According to domestic and
international human rights groups, the following are
frequently used torture methods by the Indian government:
A log of wood made heavier by weights is placed on the legs
of the detainee
and rotated up and down.
The legs of detainees are often stretched and then the
thigh muscles are beaten until they tear.
Body joints are beaten with a heavy baton.
Electric shocks are applied to genitals resulting in
impotency.
Sikh women and girls are raped, then usually killed or
rendered infertile.
Family members are forced to watch while violence is
inflicted on other family members. Often the parents must
watch as their children suffer.
Husbands are forced to beat their wives and vice versa.
Pregnancies are forcibly terminated.
Security officials sponsor death squads throughout Punjab.
Typically, these agents arrive in unmarked cars, dressed in
plain clothes and carry automatic weapons. The death squads
pick up suspects and take them to interrogation centers.
According to Asia Watch, ``virtually everyone detained in
Punjab is tortured.'' Sikhs who die of torture are routinely
listed as having died in fake ``encounters'' with the police.
Behavior like this is the reason that Amnesty International
has been barred from conducting an independent human-rights
investigation in Punjab, Khalistan since 1978. Even Fidel
Castro's Cuba has allowed Amnesty International into the
country more recently.
Eleven years after the Golden Temple massacre, the human
rights situation has only gotten worse. Our history and the
history of other minority nations under Indian occupation
teach us that freedom for Khalistan, Kashmir, and Nagaland is
the only way to prevent further massacres like the one in the
Golden Temple.
Secular democracy in India is a myth. The plight of
minority nations in India is a direct result of Indian
government's racial and ethnic intolerance. A Brigadier
General of the Indian Army made clear the actual, if
unofficial, policy of the Indian government he said that he
would execute the mayors of all six villages, kill all the
adult males, and confine all the women to army camps, that
they would reproduce with Hindus and thereby ``breed a new
race.''
No longer can genocide be an accepted norm of democracy.
Let me close with a poignant quotation from a former world
leader, one that expresses the very situation in which Sikhs
find themselves.:
A government that has to rely on the Criminal Law Amendment
Act and similar laws, that suppresses the press and
literature, that bans hundreds of organizations, that keeps
people in prison without trial, and that does so many things
that are happening in India today, is a government that has
ceased to have even a shadow of a justification for its
existence.
These were the words that Jawaharlal Nehru used to describe
the British Administration in India in 1936. What is the
difference between the India of 1936 and the India of 1995?
I'll tell you. Our small homeland of Punjab, Khalistan has
500,000 security forces. The British never stationed that
many troops in the entire Indian subcontinent. And the
British, in the century in which they ruled Punjab, never
came near slaughtering the 120,000 Sikhs India has
slaughtered in the last eleven years.
The free countries of the world support peace, justice, and
freedom. I call on all Americans to support freedom for
Khalistan. All the Sikh Nation asks is the same freedom that
Americans enjoy.
On this anniversary of the Golden Temple massacre, Sikhs
will never forget the brutal desecration of our most sacred
shrine. I know that by 1999, which will be the 300th
anniversary of the birth of the Sikh nation, the truth will
be known, and the Sikh nation will celebrate that year in a
free and sovereign Khalistan.
Khalistan Zindabad! India out of Khalistan!
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