[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1596-E1599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
KHALISTANI DELEGATION TESTIFIES AT UNITED NATIONS
______
HON. DAN BURTON
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Thursday, August 6, 1998
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, recently a delegation of
Khalistani Americans led by Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulkah, President of the
Council of Khalistan, testified before the United Nations Working Group
on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, which was meeting in New
York City. While there, they exposed the massive human rights
violations by the Indian Government in Punjab, Khalistan. Joining Dr.
Aulakh were Dr. Paramjit Singh Ajrawat of Maryland, Professor Gurcharan
Singh of Marymount University in New York, Judge Mewa Singh of New
Jersey, and Malkiat Singh Heir, also of New Jersey.
The Working Group revealed that it has requested permission to visit
India and has been denied. The same thing has happened to Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and others who have tried to conduct
an independent human rights investigation. India obviously has plenty
to hide.
Even though the government in Punjab is not led by the Sikh Akali Dal
political party, there have still been over 150 atrocities documented
since they formed a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in
1997. It is ironic that while the Khalistani delegation was testifying,
the news broke that Rajiv Singh Randhawa, a witness who identified the
police officers who kidnapped human rights activist Jaswant Singh
Khalra, was himself abducted by the police. A few days later, Japal
Singh Dhillon, who worked with Mr. Khalra on his report exposing the
mass cremations of Sikhs by the Indian Government, was also arrested on
a false charge. Shortly after that, his lawyer, Daljit Singh Rajput,
was picked up on the same false charge.
The July 9-15, 1998 issue of Awaze Qaum reported that the police
picked up Kashmira Singh of the village of Khudial Kalan on the pretext
that they were investigating a theft. They then tortured Kashmira Singh
for 15 days. They rolled logs over his legs until he couldn't walk.
They submerged him in a tub of water. They slashed his thighs with
razor blades and stuffed hot peppers into his wounds. Then the police
claimed that Kashmira Singh had escaped, a bad sign that he has most
likely been murdered by the police. In addition, they arrested his
father and brother, who I understand are also being subjected to
torture. How can a country that systematically violates basic human
rights like this call itself democratic?
It is clear from these events that there is no place for Sikhs or
other minorities within India's borders. As Dr. Aulakh has said,
``police abuses including illegal detentions, forced abductions, use of
torture, rape, and murder have continued much like they have continued
since 1984. What is worse is that there has been active collusion by
the Akali Government with police forces to cover up past abuses and to
distract from present abuses. Without effective international pressure,
the whereabouts of the abductees will never be determined and every
day, other innocent people will join the ranks of the disappeared.''
With nuclear weapons involved in South Asia, these terrible violations
of basic human rights are even more dangerous to the entire world.
I am inserting Dr. Aulakh's testimony and the Council of Khalistan's
press release into the Record for the information of my colleagues. I
urge them to read it carefully. It is frightening, but quite
informative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Testimony of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President, Council of Khalistan
before the 54th Session of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances
Ladies and Gentlemen: Let me begin by thanking you for the
opportunity to speak to the Working Group again this year. I
would like to update you on disappearances in the Sikh
homeland, Punjab, Khalistan. When I reported to you last
year, the Sikh homeland was in a deplorable situation. It has
not improved. If anything, it has been made worse by the
presence of Indian missiles deployed in Punjab after its
recent nuclear tests.
This deployment puts Sikh lives at risk to preserve those
of the ruling class. The BJP has shown an openly hegemonic
agenda towards its South Asian neighbors. There is no doubt
that if war breaks out between India and Pakistan, Punjab
will be the battleground, as it was for the last three wars
fought between the two nations and once again, Sikhs will
bear the most casualties in this nuclear holocaust.
I would like to thank the many committed people whose
efforts have helped us develop this information to present to
you. My statement is more a result of their efforts than my
own.
The human-rights situation in Punjab, Khalistan remains as
bad as it ever was. The renowned journalist and writer
Kushwant Singh has said last May that he personally approved
of the police method of simply grabbing Sikh youth and
shooting them in the head without bothering with the courts,
he stated, and I quote, ``I supported the police in its
extra-judicial killings.''
Former Speaker of the Indian Parliament Balram Jakhar said,
``If we have to kill a million Sikhs to preserve India's
territorial integrity, so be it.'' In an interview broadcast
by NPR on August 11, 1997, Narinder Singh, identified as a
spokesman for the Golden Temple, said that ``The Indian
government all the time they boast that they're democratic,
they're secular, but they have nothing to do with a
democracy, they have nothing to do with a secularism. They
try to crush Sikhs just to please the majority.''
On May 12, the chairman of India's National Human Rights
Commission reported that the NHRC had received 38,000 cases
in the last few months. This tells us the magnitude of human-
rights violations in India because only a small fraction of
cases are reported due to intimidation by the police,
poverty, and illiteracy.
What terrifies the Sikh community about this dangerous
scenario is the ease by which past Indian Governments have
been able to make Sikhs disappear and kill them with
impunity. Since 1984, an estimated quarter million Sikhs have
lost their lives, but those responsible, men like K.P.S.
Gill, are applauded in India as superheroes. It has been
proven in the ballot box that when a political party, be it
BJP or Congress, targets a minority community such as
Muslims, Christians, or Sikhs, they win elections.
[[Page E1597]]
Information on the extent of disappearances and
extrajudicial killings is by no means complete, but new cases
continue to come to light. According to the July 9-15 issue
of Awaze Qaum, the police picked up Kashmira Singh of the
village of Khudal Kalan on the pretext of investigating a
theft. They tortured him by rolling logs over his legs,
submerging him in a tub of water, cutting his thighs with a
blade and stuffing red peppers into the cuts. For 15 days
they tortured him.
When his family and villagers came to see him, he could not
walk. Then the police claimed that Kashmira Singh had escaped
from the police station and they arrested his father and a
minor brother. They, too, are being tortured, but they are so
poor that they can not even go to court. The people of the
village are afraid that Kashmira Singh was killed during the
torture and that his body was disposed of as usual, another
case of disappearance.
Keep in mind that Kashmira Singh is not a terrorist, the
young man picked up on suspicion of theft, and he had never
been formally charged.
In the July 10 issue of India West, it was reported that
the National Human Rights Commission asked the Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the abduction of a
journalist named Avtar Singh Mandar by the Punjab police. Mr.
Mandar was a correspondent for the Punjabi daily Ajit who was
abducted from his house in Jalandhar in 1992. His whereabouts
remain unknown. This is just another typical case.
Recent reports show that a police official named Swaran
Singh, known as Ghotna after a brutal type of torture he
regularly employs, tortured Gurdev Singh Kaunke, the former
Jathedar of the Akal Takht, and finally murdered him by
tearing him in half. The next day, the government announced
that Jathedar Kaunke had escaped from police custody. This is
a typical disappearance.
You are all aware of the case of Jaswant Singh Khalra. Mr.
Khalra has done accurate and detailed work regarding the
disappearances and genocide. His findings are extremely
useful in understanding the extent of State repression of
Sikhs. For his work, Mr. Khalra was abducted by police from
his residence in Amritsar on September 6, 1995. A few days
earlier, Tarn Taran SSP Ajit Sandhu told Mr. Khalra, ``We
made 25,000 disappear. It would not be hard to make one more
disappear.'' The police subsequently murdered him, according
to a witness, but they have never acknowledged his death.
Amnesty International issued a report on April 27 entitled
A Mockery of Justice: The Disappearance of Jaswant Singh
Khalra. In this report, Amnesty International noted that
``Khalra had been part of a campaign to highlight the plight
of hundreds of people (Sikhs) who disappeared after being
arrested by the Punjab police during the 1980s and early
1990s. Those who now seek to defend his rights are being
threatened and witnesses are being intimidated.''
One example of this intimidation is a former police officer
named Kuldip Singh. Chandigarh-based journalist Sukhbir Singh
Osan reported in The Hitvada that Kuldip Singh heard the
police murder Jaswant Singh Khalra at the Chhabal police
station on October 27, 1995. Like so many of the innocent
Sikhs whose disappearances he reported on, Khalra's body was
thrown into the Harike canal.
Here is how Kuldip Singh described the killing: ``He was
made to stand, thrashed and pushed onto the ground. His legs
were stretched apart more than 180 degrees. Seven policemen
kicked him in the abdomen and chest. Save me. Please give me
some water, he cried. As I was about to fetch some water, I
heard two shots. I ran back into the room and he was bleeding
profusely. He had stopped breathing.'' This is what happens
to someone when he tries to expose India's brutal policy of
disappearances and mass cremations.
According to Indian Express, Kuldip Singh told the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that the brutal former Director
General of Police, K.P.S. Gill, was involved in the Khalra
kidnapping and murder. Kuldip Singh states that he was
present when Gill met with Mr. Khalra just days before his
death. The meeting took place at the home of Ajit Sandhu, who
committed suicide when the Supreme Court of India ordered him
indicted along with eight other officers for the Khalra
kidnapping.
When Khalra and several police officers were riding back to
the police station, according to Kuldip Singh, Satnam Singh,
the SHO of the Chhabal station, told Mr. Khalra that ``if you
agree to Gill, you will be spared.'' The Coordination
Committee for Disappearances in Punjab, a human-rights group
from Punjab, has demanded that CBI file charges against Gill
for his involvement in the abduction and murder of Mr.
Khalra.
After Kuldip Singh's testimony but before it became public,
the government filed false charges that Mr. Khalra's widow,
Paramjit Kaur Khalra, tried to bride Kuldip Singh. This was
an effort to discredit Kuldip Singh's testimony and undermine
Mrs. Khalra's case against the government. Even the Punjab
DGP said that the matter was investigated by the crime
branch, which found the case untenable. Kuldip Singh is now
under the protection of the Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) because he fears liquidation by officials of the
Punjab police.
Unfortunately, the Khalra kidnapping is typical practice by
Indian security forces. Lawyers, journalists, and rights
activists have been made to disappear to instill a fear
psychosis among the people. According to The Hitvada, at
least one journalist received a phone call warning him that
``it is dangerous to report against the government.'' The
lawyer for Mr. Khalra's widow was subjected to an
intimidation attempt in a courtroom in front of a judge and
his tires were slashed. Mr. Sodhi, a lawyer from Ropar who
was representing accused Sikh militants in courts, was
abducted along with his wife and 18-month-old child. They
went into the police station and never returned. Police
dumped their bodies in the canal and falsely blamed the
killings on militants.
Khalra found that at least 25,000 cases of cremating
``unidentified'' bodies have been recorded in various
municipal cremation grounds throughout Punjab. Khalra's team
found that in the Patti cremation grounds, a total of 538
bodies were brought to the cremation ground by police between
1991 and October of 1994. 10 different police stations were
bringing bodies to be burned. Officials at the cremation
ground would describe that on some days 2 bodies would be
brought, on other days 10 bodies would be brought. Often,
more than one body was burned with a single allotment of
wood.
Last year I gave the Working Group a preliminary list of
4,694 Sikhs who have been in Indian police or security force
custody, some going as far back as 1981. Despite their deaths
being reported by Indian authorities, in virtually every
case, the body has not been released to the families, no
positive identification has been made of the deceased, post-
mortem examinations have not been conducted and no death
certificate has been issued. In those case where post-mortem
examinations were conducted, the identification of the victim
is always listed as ``unidentified.''
It is very important to note that because bodies are not
returned, and no valid death certificate is ever issued,
there is no confirmation that Sikhs who are reportedly killed
are actually dead. These Sikhs must be considered disappeared
until they can be positively identified as being killed.
Even with more recent disappearances there is an additional
alarming trend, police regularly deny picking up an
individual in the first place thereby bypassing the judicial
system altogether. Sikh families are left with the fear and
frustration of having their loved ones very abduction denied.
The patterns of these abductions are virtually the same
wherever they occur in Punjab, Khalistan. Sikhs are either
arrested openly, or a special squad is dispatched which raids
the person's residence in the middle of the night. The person
is handcuffed and taken to normal police headquarters or
special interrogation centers set up in the 80's for the sole
purpose of torture. Police methods include:
Rolling heavy wooden or iron rods along the victim's thighs
rupturing the muscles.
Electrical shocks in sensitive areas, including genitalia.
Rape if the victim is female.
Hanging the victim upside down or by the hands until
consciousness is lost.
Beating at the bottom of the victim's feet with hard blunt
wooden staffs, and thick leather cudgels.
Stretching the victim's limbs.
Inserting an iron bar in the rectum and heating it up
electrically. This causes tremendous pain and damage, but
shows no exterior evidence of torture.
As you know, a battery of Draconian laws were issued
throughout the 80's which, in addition to the cash bounty
system, give the security forces shoot-to-kill powers with
immunity from prosecution. These laws also give security
forces broad detention powers.
In a much heralded declaration in May of 1995, the Indian
government announced that the Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities Act (TADA) has not been renewed and that it is no
longer the law of the land. This is plain wrong. As reported
by Human Rights Watch's 1996 annual report, ``6,000 prisoners
remain under TADA custody.'' But that number may be in the
tens of thousands. Amnesty International, in its 1996 report,
stated ``Legislation allowing detention without charge or
trial remained in force in India. . . . many of those
detained under its provisions remained in custody.''
Furthermore, TADA revocation only applies to crimes
committed after the revocation date. As long as the police
allege that the accused committed a crime BEFORE the
revocation date, which they can do without any evidence to
back their claim, TADA methods can be used to detain the
accused indefinitely. For all intents and purposes, TADA
remains in effect.
Today, there are thousands of detainees languishing in
jails throughout India who are officially declared missing or
escaped, but are in fact in detention. Exact estimates are
impossible to ascertain, but the number of Sikhs may be
20,000. This does not include the tens of thousands of
Muslims, Assamese, Manipuris and other minorities detained
under TADA.
Since 1993, India has also defended its human rights record
by pointing to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC); a
Commission set up under pressure by the international
community. Like any effective organization, the NHRC cannot
operate without power, resources and credibility. The NHRC
has none of these attributes.
As I had mentioned in my testimony last year, the NHRC has
no power to directly investigate human rights violations and
no jurisdiction over violations committed by the security and
military forces. The NHRC has
[[Page E1598]]
no power to prosecute violators or compensate victims. Also,
there is a one-year statute of limitations based on when the
crime was committed. Thus, you could only bring forth
killings within a year after they allegedly occurred.
Therefore, the vast majority of Sikh killings,
disappearances, rape and other violations cannot even be
brought before the NHRC!
Cases filed with the NHRC are often ignored by the NHRC
itself, even when human rights activists file them. In my
previous report to you, I reported on how the co-producer of
the video documentary ``Disappearances in Punjab'', Ram
Narayan Kumar was illegally detained at Delhi airport by the
Indian security and intelligence personnel on January 19 and
20, 1997.
The complaint for the illegal detention that Mr. Kumar sent
to NHRC and India's Union Home Minister have not been
acknowledged by either party.
He stated in a letter he wrote to me last year that he
intended to travel to Punjab, Kashmir and other north eastern
regions where, and I quote, ``the armed forces have for
decades followed a systematic policy of terror to combat
secessionist movements.'' He also stated, quote, ``Frankly I
am worried about my safety when I travel in these regions . .
. I am aware that a man like Jaswant Singh Khalra, who
assisted me with my researches in Punjab, has simply
disappeared. Personally too, during my time in Punjab, I
experienced intimidation, including manhandling by
unidentified people in Amritsar.''
Given Mr. Kumar's misgivings about the ability of the NHRC
to protect him, it is unrealistic to expect Sikhs to bring
cases of human rights violations to the NHRC. Given the
statute of limitations imposed, they are barred from doing so
anyway.
In the year since I first reported to the Working Group on
the NHRC's ineffectiveness, the NHRC has received an
estimated 38,000 complaints throughout India in just the past
few months. The NHRC Chairman, Justice Venkatchaliah, has
echoed the very same problems regarding the effectiveness of
the NHRC. The NHRC Chairman also strongly objected to the
fact that India continues to bar international human rights
groups like Amnesty International, Asia Watch and others from
being allowed to visit troubled regions like Punjab.
I mentioned last year that with the Akali party election
victory in the state of Punjab last February, there was hope
that finally peace, stability and a measure of democracy
would return to the Sikh homeland. Unfortunately, this has
not been the case. In fact, police abuses including illegal
detentions, forced abductions, use of torture, rape and
murder have continued much like they have continued since
1984. What is worse is that there has been active collusion
by the Akali Government with police forces to cover up past
abuses and to distract from present abuses.
The result is that the Akali Government does not merely
condone abductions and disappearances by Punjab security
personnel, the Government actively shields such conduct from
public scrutiny by reminding the world that the government is
run by an indigenous Sikh party (the Akalis) and they
therefore must be respectful of the human rights of their own
people.
Yet the Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal,
refuses to let his government investigate these
disappearances and mass cremations. He proudly boasts that
his government has not taken action against any police
officer. Instead, former Supreme Court Justice Kuldip Singh,
chairman of the World Sikh Council, was forced to appoint a
Peoples' Commission to investigate these atrocities.
According to Mr. Jaijee, the government has spent Rs. 2 crore
(20 million rupees) for lawyers to protect these brutal
police officers.
The Peoples' Commission is a response to the
ineffectiveness of the NHRC, the refusal of the Akali state
government to investigate abuses, and the active suppression
of evidence gathering by Indian and Punjab security forces.
The members of the Peoples Commission have impeccable
credentials. All are former jurists.
The People's Commission is a response to the failure of
Indian State terrorism. It must be nurtured and supported by
the international community. If the People's Commission is
successful in documenting and broadcasting the truth of the
last 14 years, it will serve as an example of a peaceful and
effective response to state violence. The model of the
People's Commission can be applied to other situations
throughout the world where bloody conflict is the norm
instead of the exception.
Unfortunately, the Akali state government continues to
resist the People's Commission. Instead, the state government
has given into temptation and used the police and security
forces much like previous state governments, to eliminate any
and all opposition to their rule; including political
opposition.
I have enclosed a partial list of atrocities that lists
almost 150 atrocities, including several disappearances, in
Punjab since the Akalis took power in March 1997.
I had mentioned and submitted last year to the Working
Group a letter written by a group of respected human-rights
activists last year states that 50,000 cash bounties were
disbursed to Punjab police for killing Sikhs between 1991 and
1993. The figure does not include paramilitary and vigilante
force killings. Some of the militants allegedly killed by
police have appeared before the Punjab and Haryana High Court
requesting protection from the police. The letter rightly
asks, and I quote, ``If these dead men are alive, who have
the police killed?''
The letter cites evidence from human-rights groups and the
national press that 50,000 Sikhs disappeared in the state in
1994 alone. The Indian government has murdered more than
250,000 Sikhs since 1984 according to the book, The Politics
of Genocide, by the convenor of the Movement Against State
Repression, Inderjit Singh Jaijee which draws its figure from
the Punjab State Magistracy.
It is my fervent hope, a hope shared by Sikhs throughout
the world, that the work of the People's Commission will
account for every last person killed in this last decade and
a half. It will be the first step in a long road to bring
those responsible to account for their crimes.
In light of these facts, I would respectfully submit the
following recommendations for the working group to consider:
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
The Working Group should recommend the long-term presence
of international human rights monitors in Punjab, Khalistan.
In addition to UN Organs, groups like Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch/Asia and other international groups must
be allowed to operate freely throughout Khalistan.
Domestic institutions alone cannot deal with the human
rights crisis plaguing the Sikh homeland. Neither the courts,
the NHRC or the Punjab state government is willing to begin
the arduous task of surveying 13,000 villages throughout
Punjab and documenting the quarter million victims of State
terror. An added problem is the vexing question of what
happens when the human rights workers leave? No one will talk
to Amnesty International or the appropriate UN organ if they
know that they will be gone next week. Although Amnesty was
recently allowed to operate in other parts of India, they
have been denied access to Punjab since 1978. Until there is
a permanent and pervasive presence of international monitors
throughout Punjab, who will be there until all of the facts
of the genocide are collected, the fear of Indian government
retaliation will be too great to yield an accurate picture of
the death toll.
Recommendation 2
The Working Group should encourage internationally
monitored investigation of public crematoriums throughout
Punjab, as it will likely bring to resolution many of the
disappearances.
As far as we can determine, virtually none of the
individuals named in the list I gave the Working Group last
year has been released. A year later, this is still the case.
Although the police allege that these persons were killed, no
bodies have been returned, no identification has been
verified and no valid death certificate has been issued. It
is highly likely that many of them were cremated as
unidentified by the Indian police. A thorough investigation
of all public crematoriums throughout Khalistan will provide
a final, albeit tragic, resolution as to what actually
happened to the tens of thousands of Sikhs who were taken by
police and never seen again.
Recommendation 3
The Working Group should urge India to dismiss all pending
cases under TADA. Internationally monitored investigations
should be made of detention centers throughout India to
ensure that the tens of thousands of TADA detainees are
released from custody.
Despite India government claims to the contrary, TADA
remains in effect. An immediate census should be conducted
involving international monitors to ensure that detention
center's throughout India no longer contain political and
religious prisoners. Many Sikhs were taken to jails
outside Punjab and are rotting there.
Recommendation 4
The Working Group should recommend that Indian authorities
cease abducting, harassing and murdering human rights
activists and other Sikhs. The persons involved in the
kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra and that of
Jathedar Kaunke should be punished and the government should
guarantee the safety of human-rights activists, monitors, all
Sikhs, and all the other minority peoples.
About two weeks ago, Jaspal Singh Dhillon, a human-rights
activist, and four others were falsely charged with
conspiracy to blow up a jail to free a Sikh militant. The
police had filed an FIR (First Investigative Report) charging
that Mr. Dhillon and the others were involved in a conspiracy
to break into jail and alleged Sikh militants. No court
magistrate has validated these charges by the police and when
human-rights groups protested the charges, the police
relented in their pursuit to arrest Mr. Dhillon and the
others. However, the police shifted the very same charges to
ten other Sikh youths, very young Sikh boys who would less
capable for resisting police tactics. They are now in
detention and it is extremely likely that they are being
tortured. This is typical of the way the police concoct false
cases against human-rights activists and any other Sikhs they
want to harass.
Recommendation 5
The Working Group should publicly support the work of the
People's Commission and provide them with technical
assistance in achieving the most comprehensive and objective
investigation possible.
[[Page E1599]]
The Working Group should acknowledge in its annual report
the work of the People's Commission. This will not only
provide much need international recognition of the
Commission, but will make much harder for Indian security and
government officials to harass or even kill those individuals
involved in the very risky business required by the
Commission's work. The Working Group should also provide
technical assistance to the Commission so that the data they
collect and the method of collection conforms to
international standards of human rights documentation.
Recommendation 6
The Working Group should recommend measured and appropriate
sanctions against the Government of India until they comply
with all of the international treaties and covenants
regarding human rights to which they are signatories.
The above recommendations do not resolve the core issues
between Sikhs and the Indian Government which gave rise to
these abuses, issues that boil down to the right of the Sikh
nation to national self-determination. But they do help open
Punjab, Khalistan to the international community. This must
occur before any credible investigation regarding
disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and rape can
begin.
Only international pressure will stop the campaign, and
only sanctions will yield the necessary pressure to make
India act in accordance with international law. Only
sanctions will force India to respect the human rights of the
people it purports to govern. Without effective international
pressure, the whereabouts of the abductees will never be
determined and every day, other innocent people will join the
ranks of the disappeared.
Thank you.
____
Khalistani Delegation Testifies Before UN Working Group on
Disappearances
Washington, July 18.--Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of
the Council of Khalistan, testified yesterday before the
United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances. Also testifying were Dr. Paramjit Singh
Ajrawat, Professor Gurcharan Singh of Marymount University in
New York, Judge Mewa Singh of New Jersey, and Malkiat Singh
Heir, also of New Jersey.
The Working Group said that if they can get a list of the
disappeared, they will investigate. They have asked India for
permission to visit and were denied, as other independent
human-rights monitors have been. They said that they will try
again.
While the Khalistani delegation was testifying to the
United Nations, word came out that the police abducted Rajiv
Singh Randhawa, who was an eyewitness to the police
kidnapping of human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra,
yesterday. This abduction is typical of police conduct in
Punjab. The police have murdered more than 250,000 Sikhs
since 1984. Disappearances continue to be routine.
``With the Akali party election victory in the state of
Punjab last February, there was hope that finally peace,
stability and a measure of democracy would return to the Sikh
homeland,'' Dr. Aulakh told the Working Group.
``Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In fact, police
abuses including illegal detentions, forced abductions, use
of torture, rape and murder have continued much like they
have continued since 1984. What is worse is that there has
been active collusion by the Akali Government with police
forces to cover up past abuses and to distract from present
abuses,'' he said. He presented a partial list of almost 150
atrocities that have been reported since the Akali government
took power in March 1997.
According to the July 9-15 issue of Awaze Qaum, the police
picked up Kashmira Singh of the village of Khudal Kalan in
Mansa district on the pretext of investigating a theft. They
tortured him for 15 days by rolling logs over his legs,
submerging him in a tub of water, cutting his thighs with a
blade and stuffing red peppers into the wounds. Then the
police claimed that Kashmira Singh had escaped from the
police station and they arrested his elderly father and a
minor brother. They, too, are being tortured. The villagers
are afraid that Kashmira Singh was killed during the torture
and that his body was disposed of as usual.
In another recent development, Jaspal Singh Dhillon and
four other human-rights activists were falsely charged with
conspiring to blow up a jail to free an alleged ``militant.''
When the human-right community objected, the charges were
dropped under pressure. The Punjab government under Chief
Minister Badal has spent more than 2 crore (20 million)
rupees for legal fees to protect the police officers who
participated in the genocide against the Sikh Nation.
``Only international pressure will stop the campaign, and
only sanctions will yield the necessary pressure to make
India act in accordance with international law,'' Dr. Aulakh
said. ``Without effective international pressure, the
whereabouts of the abductees will never be determined and
every day, other innocent people will join the ranks of the
disappeared,'' he said.
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