[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 11, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1552-E1553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RELEASE OVER 52,000 SIKH POLITICAL PRISONERS, STOP ITS REPRESSION AND 
                               TERRORISM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of New York

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 11, 2002

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on August 12, Indian Prime Minister Atal 
Bihari Vajpayee will meet with President Bush. The next day he will 
speak at the United Nations in New York. I am sure he will be preaching 
the principles of democracy and human rights, things that we all 
support. However, Mr. Vajpayee would have much more credibility on 
these issues if India lived by the principles it preaches.
  Unfortunately, India is only a democracy for the upper-caste 
Brahmins. For minorities, it is a repressive state with little freedom. 
According to the Movement Against State Repression, India admitted to 
holding 52,268 political prisoners under the repressive, expired TADA 
law.
  Recently, it was reported in the Hindu newspaper that the violence in 
Gujarat this spring killed over 5,000 Muslims. According to published 
reports, the government orchestrated the violence and ordered police 
not to stop it. This is typical of India's pattern of repression 
against minorities.
  The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, 
over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, more than 85,000 
Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and thousands of other minorities. Over 
50,000 Sikhs have been made to ``disappear.'' The Washington Times 
reported that India admitted that its forces committed the March 2000 
massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora.
  The former majority leader of the Senate, George Mitchell, has said 
that ``the essence of democracy is the right to self-determination.'' 
Yet India has never kept its promise to the UN in 1948 that it would 
hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. India refuses to do the democratic thing 
and allow the people of Nagaland, Khalistan, and the other nations 
seeking their freedom from Indian rule. Multinational states like 
India, the Soviet Union, Austria-Hungary, and others are doomed to 
eventual collapse.
  India is a practitioner of terrorism, as an excellent article by Tim 
Phares at NewsMax.com entitled ``The Terrorism of the Indian 
Government'' demonstrates. The Washington Times reported on January 2 
that India sponsors cross-border terrorism in Sindh, a province of 
Pakistan. Journalist Tavleen Singh reported in India's leading news 
magazine, India Today, that India itself created the Liberation Tigers 
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which the U.S. government has called a 
``terrorist organization.'' It

[[Page E1553]]

paid the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to foment 
covert state terrorist activity in Kashmir and in Punjab, Khalistan, 
according to the Indian newspaper Hitavada. India has recently made 
deals to provide materials to Iraq. When we are fighting a war on 
terrorism, ``the world's largest democracy'' is practicing and 
supporting it.
  Mr. Speaker, we must do something to stop these activities. I hope 
that President Bush and Secretary General Annan will press Mr. Vajpayee 
on the issues of political prisoners, violence against minorities, and 
terrorism. The U.S. government also has other actions at its disposal. 
It is time to impose sanctions on India and cut off its aid and trade. 
And the U.S. Congress should go on record in support of self-
determination for Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, and the other nations 
seeking their freedom in South Asia.
  I would like to insert the article ``The Terrorism of the Indian 
Government'' into the Record at this time.

                 The Terrorism of the Indian Government

                            (By Tim Phares)

       The South Asian subcontinent has been called the most 
     dangerous place in the world, and events there over the past 
     few months seem to confirm this description. While the danger 
     of war seems to have passed for now, India and Pakistan 
     remain on alert and both countries continued to point 
     nuclear-capable missiles at each other. Unfortunately, 
     tensions remain high as each side tries to gain an advantage 
     over the other. Pakistan and minorities within India's 
     borders charge that India is seeking hegemony in the South 
     Asian subcontinent. Certainly is deployment of new missiles 
     that can reach deep into Pakistan and its tests that began 
     the nuclear escalation in the region suggest that this may be 
     true.
       At the recent Asian security conference in Kazakhstan, 
     India refused to talk with the Pakistanis about Kashmir. In 
     1948, India promised to hold a plebiscite on the status of 
     Kashmir, but it has never been held. Recently, the BBC 
     reported that Iraq and India have signed an agreement to 
     boost trade ties, especially in the oil sector. This comes at 
     a time when the United States may be preparing to fight Iraq 
     again. Unfortunately, this is consistent with India's pattern 
     of behavior.
       India now tries to create the impression that it supports 
     the United States, but its long record says otherwise. The 
     May 18, 1999, issue of the Indian Express reported that 
     George Fernandes, the defense minister, organized and led a 
     meeting with the ambassadors from Red China, Cuba, Russia, 
     Yugoslavia, Libya and Iraq to discuss setting up a security 
     alliance ``to stop the U.S.''
       India had a long-term friendship with the former Soviet 
     Union and supported its invasion of Afghanistan, yet it has 
     shown little support for the United States in its war on 
     terrorism. On Jan. 2, Tony Blankley wrote in the Washington 
     Times that India is sponsoring cross-border terrorism in the 
     Pakistani province of Sindh. Journalist Tavleen Singh has 
     reported in India's leading news magazine, India Today, that 
     the Indian government created the Liberation Tigers of Tamil 
     Eelam (LTTE), which the U.S. government has identified as a 
     ``terrorist organization.''
       The government also has taken quiet, implicit control of 
     two Sikh organizations, Babbar Khalsa International and the 
     International Sikh Youth Federation, which the United States 
     also has designated as ``terrorist organizations.''
       India's implicit support for terrorist activity is 
     consistent with its internal behavior. It has a record of 
     repressing minorities that undermines its proclamation of 
     democratic values.
       The violence this spring in Gujarat, in which over 5,000 
     people were killed, according to The Hindu newspaper, has 
     also heightened tensions. Muslims and other minorities charge 
     that the violence was stirred up by the government to 
     diminish Muslims in India.
       In addition, the pro-Fascist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh 
     (RSS), the parent organization of the ruling BJP, has 
     recently called for the majority-Muslim state of Kashmir to 
     be divided into three states, despite India's 1948 pledge to 
     the United Nations that it would let the people of Kashmir 
     decide their fate in a plebiscite. The majority-Sikh state of 
     Punjab, Khalistan, the predominantly Christian state of 
     Nagaland, and several other states also have strong, active 
     movements seeking their independence.
       Human rights organizations report that more than 200,000 
     Christians in Nagaland have been killed by the Indian 
     government. The book ``The Politics of Genocide,'' by 
     Inderjit Singh Jaijee, cites figures from the Punjab State 
     Magistracy showing that over 50,000 Sikhs have been murdered 
     by the Indian government since it invaded the Sikhs' holiest 
     shrine, the Golden Temple, in June 1984.
       In addition, according to a report by the Movement Against 
     State Repression (MASR), the Indian government admitted to 
     holding 52,268 Sikhs as political prisoners under the 
     repressive, expired TADA law. According to Amnesty 
     International, tens of thousands of other minorities are also 
     being held.
       In February, a bipartisan coalition of 42 members of the 
     U.S. House of Representatives, led by Reps. Dan Burton, R-
     Ind., and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., wrote to President Bush 
     urging him to work for the release of these political 
     prisoners.
       In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian 
     government paid out over 41,000 cash bounties to police 
     officers for killing members of the Sikh minority. In the 
     same year, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the 
     Indian government paid the late governor of Punjab, Surendra 
     Nath, the equivalent of $1.5 billion to foment terrorist 
     activity in Punjab and Kashmir. According to human rights 
     groups, Indian forces have killed over 80,000 Muslims in 
     Kashmir and thousands of other minorities, including Dalit 
     ``untouchables,'' Tamils and others.
       MASR also co-sponsored with the Punjab Human Rights 
     Organization an investigation of the March 2000 massacre of 
     35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora. It concluded that Indian forces 
     carried out the massacre. A separate investigation conducted 
     by the International Human Rights Organization came to the 
     same conclusion. Retired General Narinder Singh has said that 
     ``Punjab is a police state.''
       The book ``Soft Target,'' written by Canadian journalists 
     Zuhair Kashmeri of the Toronto Globe and Mail and Brian 
     McAndrew of the Toronto Star, shows that India blew up its 
     own airliner in 1985, killing 329 people, apparently in order 
     to blame Sikhs for the atrocity and create a pretext for more 
     violence against them. The book shows that the Indian consul 
     general in Toronto pulled his daughter off the flight shortly 
     before it was due to depart. An auto dealer who was a friend 
     of the consul general also canceled his reservation at the 
     last minute. Surinder Singh, director of North American 
     Affairs for the External Affairs office in New Delhi, also 
     canceled his reservation on that flight.
       The consul general also called to finger a suspect in the 
     case before the public knew that the bombing had taken place. 
     The book quotes an agent of the Canadian State investigative 
     Service (CSIS) as saying, ``If you really want to clear the 
     incidents quickly, take vans down to the Indian High 
     Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, load 
     up everybody and take them down for questioning. We know it, 
     and they know it, that they are involved.''
       In recent months, India has been added to the State 
     Department's ``watch list'' of countries that violate 
     religious freedom. Some members of Congress have called for 
     sanctions against India and for an end to American aid. Some 
     have also endorsed self-determination for the peoples seeking 
     freedom from India through a plebiscite on independence. 
     While these events seem unlikely to occur anytime soon, the 
     Indian government has held negotiations with the freedom 
     fighters in Nagaland. Home Minister L.K. Advani recently 
     admitted that if Kashmir achieves freedom (which now seems 
     more likely than ever), it will cause India to break apart. 
     Some experts have predicted that within a decade, neither 
     India nor Pakistan will exist in their current form.
       The Indian subcontinent will continue to be a region that 
     bears close attention by American policymakers.

     

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