[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 24, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1414-E1415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




BREAKDOWN OF INDIA-PAKISTAN TALKS SHOWS INDIA'S CONTEMPT FOR DEMOCRACY, 
                                 PEACE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 24, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I think we were all distressed by the 
breakdown of the talks between India and Pakistan aimed at reducing 
tensions in South Asia, one of the most troubled areas in the world. 
The fact that the talks broke down increases the danger and the 
instability in that region.
  It looks as if much of the blame for the breakdown goes squarely to 
the Indian government. As Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the 
Council of Khalistan, put it, ``It is very clear that India does not 
want a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue.'' India's Defense 
Ministry spokeswoman did not even mention Kashmir among the topics 
under discussion. Three drafts of a joint statement were vetoed by the 
Indian cabinet. As you know, the Indian government is run by the 
militant, Hindu nationalist BJP, a branch of the pro-Fascist Rashtriya 
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which has said that everyone in India must be 
Hindu or be subservient to Hinduism. The RSS published a booklet last 
year showing how to implicate Christians and other religious minorities 
in false criminal cases.
  India's human-rights violations have been well documented. It has 
killed over tens of thousands of Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Dalits, 
and other minorities. It has burned churches, prayer halls, and 
Christian schools, destroyed the most revered Muslim mosque in India, 
and attacked the seat of Sikhism, the Golden Temple. It has killed 
priests and raped nuns. Indian troops were recently caught in a village 
in Kashmir trying to set fire to a Gurdwara and some Sikh homes. This 
atrocity was prevented by the joint action of Sikh and Muslim 
villagers. The Indian government killed 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora in 
March 2000. In 1997, Indian troops broke up a Christian religious 
festival with gunfire.
  India admitted to holding over 52,000 Sikhs in illegal detention 
without charge or trial under the repressive TADA law, which expired in 
1995, according to a recent report by the Movement Against State 
Repression. It was routine to rearrest people released under TADA and 
to file charges in more than one state simultaneously to deter 
prisoners from contesting the charges. Amnesty International notes that 
there are tens of thousands of Sikhs and others being held as political 
prisoners. Christians, Muslims, and other minorities are also held as 
political prisoners in large numbers. A few months ago, the Council of 
Khalistan called on the political prisoners to run for office from 
their jail cells. This might be the most effective action that the 
political prisoners and minority political leaders can take. I call 
upon President Bush to press India for the release of all political 
prisoners. Why are there political prisoners in a democracy?
  India has murdered Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Muslims, and other 
minorities by the tens of thousands. Should the United States be 
supporting such a country, especially when it tries to immunize its 
human-rights violations by proclaiming itself a democracy?
  America is the bastion of freedom in the world. It is our mission to 
extend and expand liberty wherever and whenever we can. Accordingly, we 
should stop U.S. aid to India until we no longer have to stand up here 
denouncing its human-rights abuses and we should support the birthright 
of all people, the democratic right to self-determination. If India is 
truly a democracy, it should live up to its promise made 53 years ago 
to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. If India genuinely believes in 
democratic values, it must hold plebiscites on the political future of 
Kashmir, of Nagaland, of Punjab, Khalistan, and of all the nations 
seeking their freedom from India. India is an inherently unstable 
country composed of many different nations whose breakup is inevitable. 
For the cause of peace, prosperity, stability, security, and freedom, 
we must do whatever we can to ensure that this occurs peacefully like 
the breakups of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, not violently like 
that of Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, India seems to beheaded down the 
violent path. Let us work to help end the violence, repression, and 
terrorism and to ensure freedom and peace for all the peoples of that 
troubled region.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the Council of Khalistan's press 
release about the breakdown of the India-Pakistan talks into the Record 
at this time.

       Indian Arrogance Exposed During Musharraf-Vajpayee Summit


Plebiscite in Kashmir, Punjab, and Other Nations Essential for Peace in 
                               South Asia

       Washington, DC, July 17, 2001.--Indian hypocrisy was 
     exposed to the international community when they refused to 
     mention the word Kashmir during the bilateral talks between 
     Pakistani President Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister 
     Vajpayee. The Indian Foreign Ministry's press spokeswoman, 
     Niruparna Rao, did not even list Kashmir among the items 
     discussed. Aides to President Musharraf said that three 
     drafts of a joint statement had been approved by both sides 
     but the Indian Cabinet vetoed them.
       ``It is very clear from these actions that India does not 
     want any peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue,'' said Dr. 
     Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khatistan, 
     which leads the Sikh struggle for independence from India. 
     ``India must learn that 54 years of repression in Kashmir 
     which resulted in the murder of over 75,000 Kashmiris and the 
     expenditure of over $2 billion a year have not extinguished 
     the flame of freedom which is burning in the hearts of the 
     people of Kashmir,'' he said.
       ``India must keep its promise of a plebiscite in Kashmir, 
     which it agreed to in 1948 in a United Nations resolution,'' 
     Dr. Aulakh said. ``India is morally wrong. If India is a 
     democracy, why is it afraid of a vote?,'' he asked. ``How can 
     India justify its invasion annexation of Hyderabad, where the 
     ruler was a Muslim and the majority population was Hindu, but 
     by the same token in Kashmir population is Muslim and the 
     ruler was Hindu and India sent the army to maintain its 
     illegal occupation?,'' Dr. Aulakh asked.

[[Page E1415]]

       India is not one country and it is not one nation. It is a 
     multinational state put together by the British for 
     administrative convenience. India is a vestige of 
     colonialism. India has 18 official languages and there are 17 
     freedom movements within its borders. The fundamentalist 
     Hindu ruling BJP government is on record that anyone living 
     in India must either be a Hindu or subservient to the Hindus. 
     This is not acceptable to the Sikh Christian, or Muslim 
     minorities.
       India has unleashed a reign of terror on the minorities. In 
     1984, the Indian government attacked the Golden Temple, the 
     holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, and 38 other Gurdwaras 
     and killed over 20,000 people during that attack throughout 
     Punjab. India demolished the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, the 
     most revered mosque in India, and it is planning to build a 
     Hindu temple on that site. Similarly, Christian churches, 
     prayer halls, and schools have also been demolished. 
     Christians have also seen the murder of priests, rape of 
     nuns, the murder of a missionary and his two sons, ages 8 and 
     10, by burning them alive while they slept in their jeep and 
     other atrocities. Now the government plans to expel his widow 
     from the country.
       Last month, Indian soldiers were caught red-handed 
     attempting to burn down a Gurdwara and several Sikh homes in 
     Kashmir. Sikh and Muslim townspeople overpowered the troops 
     and prevented them from carrying out this atrocity. In March 
     2000, while former President Clinton was visiting India, the 
     Indian government murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of 
     Chithisinghpora in Kashmir and tried to blame the massacre on 
     alleged militants. In November 1994 the Indian newspaper 
     Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the late 
     governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to organize 
     and support covert state terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir.
       Indian security forces have murdered over 250,000 Sikhs 
     since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State 
     Magistracy and human-rights organizations and published in 
     The Politics of Genocide by Inderjit Singh Jaijee. Over 
     52,000 Sikh political prisoners are rotting in Indian jails 
     without charge or trial. Many have been in illegal custody 
     since 1984. Since 1984, India has engaged in a campaign of 
     ethnic cleansing in which over 50,000 Sikhs have been 
     murdered by the Indian police and security forces and 
     secretly cremated. The Indian Supreme Court described this 
     campaign as ``worse than a genocide.'' General Narinder Singh 
     has said, ``Punjab is a police state.'' U.S. Congressman Dana 
     Rohrabacher has said that for Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims, and 
     other minorities ``India might as well be Nazi Germany.''
       ``The people and nations of the subcontinent are entitled 
     to freedom and self-determination,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``It is 
     time for India to do the democratic thing and end the 
     repression,'' he said. ``It will help the Indian government 
     and the people of India to give freedom to all the nations of 
     South Asia,'' he said. ``As soon as it happens, the South 
     Asian nations can make a South Asian economic market parallel 
     to the European Economic Community where the nations are 
     independent but joined economically, which benefits every 
     member,'' he said. ``It will also include Pakistan, 
     Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and others. This will reduce 
     tensions and the nuclear threat in this dangerous region and 
     will benefit all the people of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said.

     

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