[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 29, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1419-E1420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORTS INDIA DETAINING THOUSANDS OF POLITICAL 
                        PRISONERS WITHOUT CHARGE

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                          HON. GARY A. CONDIT

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 29, 1999

  Mr. CONDIT. Mr. Speaker, the June 25 issue of Indian Abroad reports 
that Amnesty International issued a report in which it said that India 
is holding thousands of political prisoners without charge or trial. 
Amnesty International's report was issued on June 16.
  The article said that ``torture and ill-treatment continued to be 
widespread and hundreds of people were reported to have died in 
custody.'' Amnesty International reported that ``conditions in many 
prisons amounted to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.'' It 
reported that ``disappearances'' continue to occur and hundreds of 
extrajudicial killings were reported. In other words, nothing has 
changed.
  Mr. Speaker, do these sound like the actions of a democracy? Indian 
claims to be ``the world's largest democracy'' even while it continues 
these repressive, tyrannical policies. This report shows that India is 
not democratic. It is merely the tyranny of the majority exercised on 
the minorities. That is why there are 17 freedom movements within its 
borders.
  This comes at a time when India is engaged in combat to wipe out the 
freedom fighters in Kashmir, a conflict in which it has fired shells 
containing chemical weapons. India brought nuclear weapons to South 
Asia; now it is introducing chemical weapons.
  America was founded on the principle of liberty. We must act to help 
bring the blessings of liberty to the people of South Asia. We can 
begin by declaring our support for national self-determination in 
Kashmir, Khalistan, Nagaland, and the other nations occupied by India. 
I am proud to have sponsored a resolution in the last Congress calling 
for an internationally-supervised plebiscite in Punjab, Khalistan on 
the question of independence. We should also cut off American aid to 
this government as long as it practices the kind of tyranny that 
Amnesty International reported, and we should impose reasonable 
economic sanctions. It is our responsibility to defend freedom wherever 
we can.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce the India Abroad article into 
the Record for the information of my colleagues. I urge my colleagues 
to read it.

                 [From the India Abroad June 25, 1999]

                              Human Rights


           Amnesty says thousands are detained without trial

                         (From News Dispatches)

       LONDON--Thousands of political prisoners, including 
     prisoners of conscience, were detained without charge or 
     trial in India, Amnesty International said in its annual 
     report, released on June 16.
       Torture and ill-treatment continued to be widespread, and 
     hundreds of people were reported to have died in custody, the 
     London-based human rights oganization added.
       ``Conditions in many prisons amounted to cruel, inhuman or 
     degrading treatment,'' it said, adding that 
     ``disappearances'' also continued and hundreds of 
     extrajudicial executions were reported. At least 35 people 
     were sentenced to death but no executions were reported, the 
     report said.
       The London-based human rights watchdog said armed groups 
     were also to blame. These groups committed grave human rights 
     abuses including torture, hostage-taking and killing of 
     civilians, it said.
       Overall, the report lamented that 1998, which marked the 
     50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights, was marred by a worldwide catalogue of abuses.
       But Amnesty secretary general Pierre Sane also pointed to 
     two landmark events--

[[Page E1420]]

     the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court 
     and the arrest in October of former Chilean President Augusto 
     Pinochet--which could help make human rights violators 
     answerable.
       Amnesty also singled out the United States as the only 
     country known to have executed juvenile offenders in 1998.

     

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