[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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