[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 2 (Thursday, January 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E78]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            INDIAN REGIME MUST FREE AMERICAN CITIZEN DHILLON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 9, 1997

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask when the Government of 
India will finally get around to letting American citizen Balbir Singh 
Dhillon come home to his family. He has been held since May on trumped-
up charges.
  Mr. Dhillon, a 43-year-old businessman and an American citizen, was 
arrested in May on charges that he was carrying RDX explosives with the 
intention of assassinating leaders of the Akali Dal, the Sikh, 
political party. The Human Rights Wing issued a report which proves 
these charges false. Yet the Indian regime continues to hold Mr. 
Dhillon anyway. On September 26, a bipartisan group of 36 Members of 
Congress also wrote to President Clinton urging his personal 
intervention to bring Mr. Dhillon back to the United States. The 
President wrote us back to assure us that Ambassador Frank Wisner has 
taken up his case with the regime. I am pleased that the administration 
is working on the case, but so far they have not gotten through to the 
Indian regime. Mr. Dhillon remains in the clutches of this brutal 
tyranny. While he is free on bail, he is not free to leave India.
  Could the fact that Mr. Dhillon is a Sikh, a Khalistani American, be 
a factor in this case? The Indian regime has apparently decided to 
target Sikhs living outside of India or Khalistan. Dr. Gurmit Singh 
Aulakh, who is the president of the Council of Khalistan, was informed 
by the FBI that there is an assassination threat against him. His 
organization is leading the Sikh Nation's peaceful, democratic, 
nonviolent struggle to free Khalistan, the Sikh homeland. Khalistan 
declared its independence on October 7, 1987. Dr. Aulakh was also 
informed in a telephone call from Germany, where he will be visiting 
soon, that there is an assassination threat against him there also. Dr. 
Aulakh has been a valuable source of information for many of us in 
Congress. The civilized world will not accept this kind of outrageous 
effort to intimidate an articulate spokesman for his people's freedom.
  In July, about 20 Indian Government agents severely beat Dr. Jagjit 
Singh Chohan, the leading Khalistani activist in Britain, when he 
requested emergency medical treatment for an acute heart condition. Dr. 
Chohan is a 68-year-old man whose right hand was amputated years ago. 
Clearly, the beating of Dr. Chohan and the continuing detention of 
Balbir Singh Dhillon are designed to send a message to any Sikhs who 
are thinking of getting involved in the struggle for freedom.
  It is an outrage that this is allowed to happen to anyone, let alone 
an American citizen. It is time to take strong measures against the 
brutal, corrupt regime that is holding Mr. Dhillon. I would like to 
know why the American taxpayers are paying their hard-earned dollars to 
support a regime that can treat American citizens this way. What has 
happened to Mr. Dhillon and his family is a terrible thing. The fact 
that we are sending money to the regime that is responsible for it just 
makes it worse.
  The time has come to take action. We should stop sending United 
States aid to India. India is a country which votes against us at the 
United Nations more often than all but a couple of countries. It was a 
close ally of the Soviet Union. It is leading the nuclear arms race in 
South Asia. Khalistan, on the other hand, has promised to sign a 100-
year treaty of friendship with the United States. There is an old 
saying in politics: Join the side you're on. It is time for America to 
join the side we are on by taking these strong measures to secure 
freedom, dignity, and prosperity for all the peoples of South Asia.

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