[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 20, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E388-E389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  INDIAN TYRANNY SUBJECT OF NEW VIDEO

                                 ______


                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 1996

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, many of us have spoken repeatedly about 
India's repressive tyranny in Punjab, Khalistan, and in other areas 
where the dominant population is not Brahmin Hindu. Now a new video has 
come out which exposes the pervasive nature of that tyranny, at least 
as it relates to the Sikh nation in Punjab, Khalistan. I thank the 
Council of Khalistan for sending me this powerful documentary 
Disappearances in Punjab.
  This video was not made by Sikhs, but by a human rights activist who 
is Hindu. It is a solid investigation of the repressive nature of 
India's brutal rule of Punjab, Khalistan. Khalistan, of course, is the 
independent Sikh country declared on October 7, 1987. The Council of 
Khalistan is its government in exile.
  Disappearances in Punjab focuses on Sikhs who have been made to 
disappear by the Indian regime. According to a coalition of prominent 
human rights groups and individual activists, there are more than 
100,000 Sikhs who have been subjected to this cruel fate. Perhaps the 
most prominent is the general secretary of the human rights wing--
Shiromani Akali Dal--Jaswant Singh Khalra. Mr. Khalra was whisked away 
from his Amritsar home on September 6, less than a week after meeting 
with a congressional delegation to discuss a report he had published. 
In the report, Mr. Khalra showed that over 25,000 young Sikhs men had 
been abducted by the regime, tortured, and killed, then their bodies 
had been declared unidentified and cremated. After the report was 
published, the Tarn Taran police chief explicitly told Mr. Khalra that 
he, too, would be made to disappear. After more than 6 months in 
illegal detention, Mr. Khalra's whereabouts remain unknown. As the 
video shows, this incident is unfortunately part of a pattern of 
intimidation through terror by the Indian regime.
  The video publicizes real victims of India's brutal repression. It 
shows us a policewoman talking about the disappearances and other 
repression in Punjab, Khalistan. It is vivid indictment of the 
brutality that is a way of life in

[[Page E389]]

Punjab, Khalistan, under India's tyrannical rule.
  After seeing this video, I am more convinced than ever that we need 
to support the Sikhs of Khalistan and the other oppressed people of the 
South Asian subcontinent in their struggle to be free. The Indian 
regime has killed over 150,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 200,000 
Christians in Nagaland since 1947, over 43,000 Moslems in Kashmir since 
1988, and thousands of Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, Dalits--black 
untouchables--and other people who are in the way of the Brahmin class. 
Maybe that is what the New York Times had in mind when it described 
India in its February 25 edition as ``a rotten, corrupt, repressive, 
and anti-people system.'' No one should have to live in such a system. 
If America can help the peoples of the subcontinent escape from this 
brutal and bloody tyranny, it is our moral duty to do so. We must do 
whatever we can.
  One thing we clearly can do is to cut off United States aid to India. 
A good first step in that direction is H.R. 1425, the Human Rights in 
India Act. Under this act, United States development aid to India would 
be cut off until human rights are observed. I urge my colleagues to 
vote for this bill and to join those of us who have become sponsors. 
America must not be supporting tyranny with aid or trade. We must be 
especially careful not to support tyrants with the tax dollars of the 
American people.
  We must also pass House Concurrent Resolution 32, urging a plebiscite 
in Indian-occupied Khalistan under international supervision. This is a 
sense-of-the-Congress resolution. Frankly, India shows all the signs of 
a country in the process of unraveling. It is time that America got 
itself on the side of the emerging South Asian nations who will soon be 
free despite Indian's repression. Only then will the subcontinent live 
in prosperity and harmony.

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