[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 195 (Friday, December 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2329-E2331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

                                 ______


                        HON. WILLIAM O. LIPINSKI

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 1995

  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, as International Human Rights Day 
approaches, Indian repression of the Sikh nation continues. Over 
150,000 Sikhs have been killed by the regime since 1984. The State 
Department reported in its 1994 country report on India that the regime 
paid more than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing 
Sikhs. One of those Sikhs, Mr. Harpreet Singh, was reported killed in 
an encounter with the police 4 years ago. Interestingly enough, the 
Associated Press reported that he appeared in court last month to sue 
the Indian authorities for wrongful custody. That is quite an 
achievement for a dead man.
  Unfortunately, cases like Mr. Singh's are typical of the human rights 
abuses committed by Indian authorities in Khalistan. A similar case is 
that of Sarabjit Singh, a man twice killed. On October 30, 1993. police 
brought two bodies to a hospital for an autopsy, claiming that they had 
been killed in an encounter. However, one of the two men, Sarabjit 
Singh was indeed alive. While the Doctor called to inform his family 
that he was not dead, the police took Mr. Singh away, killed him, and 
cremated the body.
  These two incidents, plus the many others which my colleagues and I 
have placed in the Congressional Record are only the tip of the 
iceberg. These brutal acts of tyranny and terrorism must be stopped.
  American support for an end to these atrocities and for the right for 
the Sikhs to live in peace is crucial. I commend the Council of 
Khalistan for its tireless work to ensure that the plight of these 
people is not forgotten. It is time for our Government to join in this 
effort. With the many human rights causes this great Nation fights for, 
surely we can raise our voice for the people of Khalistan as well.
  India is the third-largest recipient of United States aid. It is time 
for the United States to tell the Indian Government that there will be 
no more aid until the repression of minority nations has ended. Not 
until the repression of the Sikhs and other minorities begins to hurt 
the regime will the suffering end and the glow of freedom shine 
throughout the subcontinent.
  I am introducing an article from the November 2 issue of the New York 
Post on the case of Harpreet Singh into the Record as reference for 
this atrocity.

                 [From the New York Post, Nov. 2, 1995]

                     Dead Man Resurrected in Court

       New Delhi, India.--A Sikh man who police claimed was killed 
     in a gun battle four years ago appeared in court yesterday to 
     sue authorities for wrongful custody, his lawyer said.
       The case of Harpreet Singh highlights irregularities 
     allegedly committed by police in Punjab state during their 
     campaign to crush a decade-long uprising for a separate Sikh 
     homeland.
       Human rights groups say thousands of civilians were accused 
     of being militants, illegally detained, and sometimes killed.
     
[[Page E 2330]]


                       INDIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 1995

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, this coming Monday, Dec. 10, has been 
declared by the United Nations as International Human Rights Day. It is 
a day on which we note the basic rights of all people and speak out 
against the violations of these most basic rights.
  We are all aware of the deplorable human rights situation arising 
from the war in Bosnia. We hope that the Dayton accords will finally 
put an end to these brutal acts. The ongoing violations of human rights 
in Haiti continue to draw our attention. We are also aware of the 
executions of nine political activists in Nigeria, which friends of 
human rights condemn. Today I would like to address human rights 
violations in India, the country which bills itself as ``the world's 
largest democracy.''
  Let me cite just a few examples. On Sept. 6, Sardar Jaswant Singh 
Khalra, the general secretary of the human rights wing of the Shiromani 
Akali Dal, a Sikh political party, was kidnapped from his Amritsar home 
by local police. He had put out a report in which he proved that the 
Indian regime had kidnapped more than 25,000 young Sikh men, tortured 
and murdered them, then covered up police responsibility for their 
deaths by declaring their bodies ``unidentified'' and cremating them. 
Unfortunately, this reprehensible practice is just a part of the 
ongoing Indian oppression of the Sikh. In all, more than 150,000 Sikhs 
have been killed by the Indian regime since 1984. The Indian regime has 
also killed over 43,000 Muslims in Kashmir and over 200,000 Christians 
in Nagaland. Christian Nagaland is a restricted area--no one is allowed 
to travel there without a special permit. No one is punished for it. In 
fact, the State Department's 1994 country report on India states that 
the regime paid out more than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers 
for killing Sikhs between 1991 and 1993. One of those Sikhs was a man 
named Harpreet Singh, who came to court last month to sue the regime 
for illegally imprisoning him. Harpreet Singh was allegedly killed in 
1991. Apparently a police officer collected a bonus from the Indian 
regime for killing an innocent person in Harpreet Singh's place.
  Half a million Indian troops currently occupy Punjab, with another 
500,000 in neighboring Kashmir. At no time during their rule did the 
British station 500,000 troops in all of the subcontinent. Recently, 
the government called off scheduled elections in Kashmir after 
attacking its most venerated mosque last year in an incident strongly 
reminiscent of the June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, 
the Sikhs' holiest shrine. The regime has denied passports to Dalit 
(``black untouchable'') leader V.T. Rajshekar and Sikh political leader 
Simranjit Singh Mann. Earlier this year, a 5-year-old Dalit girl named 
Dhanam was blinded by her teacher for the social sin of trying to take 
a drink of water from the community pitcher. Does this look like the 
face of a democracy which respects human rights?
  The Indian rulers cannot escape the simple truth that human rights 
apply in their country too, whether they like it or not. It is time for 
India to begin respecting human rights. To observe International Human 
Rights Day, I call on the Indian regime to release Jaswant Singh Khalra 
immediately, to respect the political rights of the Sikhs of Khalistan, 
the Muslims of Kashmir, the Assamese, Nagas, Dalits, and others living 
under the boot of Indian oppression; to drop all charges against Mr. 
Mann and allow him and Mr. Rajshekar to have their passports; and to 
release over 70,000 Sikh political prisoners held without charges under 
the brutal so-called Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act [TADA] 
despite the fact that this act expired months ago. These measures would 
begin to re-establish India's reputation as a democratic nation. Until 
then, all U.S. aid to India should be cut off and our Government should 
place trade sanctions on India. These steps would make it clear to the 
Indian regime that the United States takes human rights seriously and 
it is time that India did so as well.
  I am introducing Iqbal Masud's article from The Pioneer entitled 
``The Bogus Peace of Beant and Gill'' which shows that India's claim of 
peace in Khalistan is a fraud.

                    [From the Pioneer, Nov. 4, 1995]

                   The Bogus Peace of Beant and Gill

                            (By Iqbal Masud)

       Amnesty International believes that the Punjab Police have 
     been allowed to commit human rights violations with impunity 
     in the State. While the organisation recognises that the 
     Indian Government has had to face ruthless and violent 
     opposition in Punjab, it is totally unacceptable for 
     Government agents to resort to human rights violations 
     themselves in their fight against these groups. The UN 
     Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced 
     Disappearance makes clear that ``no circumstances whatsoever, 
     whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political 
     instability or any other public emergency may be invoked to 
     justify enforced disappearances''. (Conclusion to Amnesty 
     Report, ``Determining the fate of the `disappeared in Punjab' 
     '', October 1995.)
       The fate of Amnesty reports in India is over-familiar. 
     Either hostile tearing apart by Subhash Kirpekar in The Times 
     of India or contemptuous dismissal in The Economic Times. The 
     second has happened but not the first up to the moment of 
     writing (October 25) with regard to this report. But I would 
     find it difficult to dismiss this report because it is 
     effectively factual. It gives dates, it names the victims and 
     perpetrators and, most important, it quotes Supreme Court and 
     High Court judgements in specific cases--judgements which 
     have been ignored by the police. The only result has been a 
     complaint by Mr. KPS Gill to the Punjab Government that such 
     judgements are demoralising.
       I will analyse this report presently. But in its totality I 
     find it a damning indictment whose importance goes beyond 
     human rights. It has become a political document without 
     remotely intending to be. It shows how the Pax Beant-Gilliana 
     was ``purchased'' during 1993-95. Tacitup said of the Roman 
     conquests: ``They make a desert and call it peace.'' The 
     Beant-Gill duo committed mass incarceration and disappearance 
     and called it ``normalcy''.
       The question arises: Why was this nightmare charted by 
     current reportage and Supreme Court and High Court judgements 
     not apparent to the rest of the nation? Why did Khushwant 
     Singh and other eminent columnists make Mr. Gill into an all-
     time hero and Beant Singh into a saviour of the nation? True, 
     disquieting hints that all was not well in Mr. Gill's raj 
     were all the time appearing in the Press. But actually Mr. 
     Gill's night attacks against the militants over-shadowed 
     everything else. Mr. Gill was proposed to be sent to North-
     East, to J&K and every place which troubled the Indian middle 
     class law and order ethos. One development of the 1990s is 
     that the middle class has become brutalised. Witness the joy 
     with which Amnesty reports are pilloried for the least 
     discrepancy.


                          the courts' comments

       Let us look into some of the specifics of the current 
     report. The first is the phenomenon of ``unclaimed bodies'' 
     cremated by the police. A particularly horrible instance is 
     that of Sarab-jit Singh. On October 30, 1993, the police from 
     Valhotra brought two unclaimed bodies to the hospital for 
     autopsy. One of them was still found to be alive--Sarabjit 
     Singh. The doctor called his family but meanwhile the police 
     took Sarabjit away. A few hours later his body was brought 
     back and cremated without his family being allowed to see it. 
     When I read that I said, Welcome to Super Nazi State.
       A former Black Cat Commando filed a petition in the Punjab 
     HC alleging the police had killed people in fake encounters 
     and cremated their bodies without due procedure.
       The most important sector of the report concerns SC's and 
     HC's critiques of the Punjab Police. It will be difficult for 
     our media to reject this portion of the report. Of course, 
     one has read about critical judgements of the courts, but 
     this is the first time they have been brought together in 
     this damning fashion. In May 1995 the SC commented about a 
     habeas corpus petition filed in 1991 about the disappearance 
     of seven members of a family. ``It is a serious matter, 
     people are being killed, their whereabouts and their dead 
     bodies are not known. No doubt we will ensure that the law is 
     maintained and its majesty upheld. But what about the 
     people who are being eliminated . . . and who will be 
     accountable for that?''
       In another case the SC recommended prosecution of senior 
     police officers on charges of murder on the basis of a CBI 
     report that an entire family had been killed in custody. They 
     rejected Mr. Gill's plea that he had not been informed of the 
     murders. They chided the solicitor-general who defended the 
     officers on the ground that no judge in Punjab had the guts 
     to refuse bail to the accused: ``You are asking for 
     commendation to eliminate persons. It's a most blatant thing 
     I have heard from you.''


                           a serious document

       The cases in which action was taken by the HC reveals an 
     equally alarming picture. Three instances will serve as 
     illustrations.
       In May 1995, three persons--all in their 70s--Ranjit Kaur, 
     Niranjan Singh and Mohinder Singh, found in police custody, 
     were ordered to be released by the HC. They had been detained 
     since 1992 to procure surrender of suspects. In July 1994 and 
     enquiry ordered by the HC found the police guilty of 
     murdering Maninder Singh Dalli in a fake encounter. The HC 
     ordered proceedings for murder under IPC against the police 
     and ordered compensation to be paid to parents of Dalli.
       In September 1995, the HC passed orders in a particularly 
     awful case. One Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law, and driver, 
     had ``disappeared'' in March 1994, when accompanied by a DSP. 
     Vinod Kumar had gone to collect the ashes of his father. The 
     CBI suggested four officers were involved. The HC ordered 
     pursuance of criminal proceedings and payment of substantial 
     compensation.
       The response of the police to this barrage of judicial 
     censors is fascinating and throws light on future police 
     tactics all over India to meet ``human rights'' criticism. It 
     is a mix of administrative trickery and the familiar to 
     middle class insecurity vis-a-vis 

[[Page E 2331]]
     terrorism. The HC premises are riddled with police spies. The moment an 
     order is issued to release a detenu, the police agent sends 
     an advance police official to shift the detenu elsewhere, Mr. 
     SB Chavan and the Human Rights Commission have repeatedly 
     asked the Punjab Government to check allegations of 
     ``disappearances''. The only police response has been to ask 
     the Government that the flow of judicial criticism is checked 
     as it is demoralizing the police. There is a proposal to 
     enact an ``extraordinary law'' to bar judicial 
     ``interference'' with anti-terrorist tactics of the police 
     for a limited period of time.
       The Amnesty has made recommendations for correcting all 
     this. Of course, this is just ignorable counsel for the Brar 
     Government and Mr. KPS Gill. But the report is a serious 
     document for the Government to ponder over.
       Basically the report is a political document which contains 
     a dire warning though Amnesty did not intend it to be so. The 
     Government can ignore the implications of this report only at 
     great cost to the people of Punjab and to human rights 
     situation in the rest of India.