[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 25, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1645-E1646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REPRESSION OF MINORITIES CONTINUES IN INDIA--SIKHS, MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS 
                        CONTINUE TO BE TARGETED

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 24, 2002

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I am distressed about two recent 
articles that show the continuing repression of minorities in India. 
One article appeared in The Hindu, an Indian newspaper. It said that 
over 5,000 Muslims were killed in the violence this spring in Gujarat. 
Then the Times of India reported that a group of Indian police officers 
fired on a group of peaceful Sikh protestors. These articles show that 
minorities such as Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and others continue to 
suffer the worst kind of repression in ``democratic'' India.
  In Gujarat, the police were quoted as saying that they were ordered 
to stand aside and let the Muslims be killed. This was strangely 
reminiscent of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi. It is part of 
India's pattern of repression of its minorities. Now, it comes out that 
peaceful Sikh protestors who were simply holding a peaceful protest 
against what they see as desecration of their gurus and their 
scriptures were fired upon by Indian police. What kind of a democracy 
fires on peaceful protestors engaged in peaceful action?
  Christians continue to be oppressed as well. Churches have been 
burned, prayer halls have been attacked, nuns have been raped, and 
priests have been murdered. Militant Hindu nationalists burned a 
missionary and his two young sons to death while they slept in their 
jeep. A few years ago, police fired on a Christian religious festival 
that was peacefully promoting the theme ``Jesus Is the Answer.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to stop U.S. aid to India. It is time to 
declare our support for self-determination for the Sikhs of Khalistan, 
the Muslims of Kashmir, the Christians of Nagaland, and all the peoples 
demanding their freedom from India. We cannot just stand by and allow 
India's repression to go on with our support. Self-determination is 
everyone's birthright. Freedom is everyone's birthright. It is time for 
America to follow our principles and support it.
  The Council of Khalistan issued an excellent press release on the 
police firing at the peaceful demonstrators. I would like to insert 
that into the Record at this time. In addition, I would like to place 
the article from The Hindu into the Record to show my colleagues the 
ongoing repression of minorities in supposedly democratic India.

             Indian Police Fire at Peaceful Sikh Protestors

                india again shows it is not a democracy

       Washington, DC, August 5, 2002.--The Times of India 
     reported on August 1 that police in Malout fired on a crowd 
     of peaceful

[[Page E1646]]

     protestors, injuring many of them. Several have been admitted 
     to Civil Hospital, Malout. Eight protestors were arrested. 
     The police used tear gas on the demonstrators. Two people 
     suffered bullet wounds, according to the article.
       The demonstrators were protesting against a so-called 
     religious function organized by the Divya Jyoti Jagriti 
     Sansthan which was aimed at undermining the Sikh religion and 
     slandering the Sikh gurus, according to the Times of India.
       ``Like the attack on the Golden Temple, this incident shows 
     that there is no place in India for Sikhs,'' said Dr. Gurmit 
     Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan. 
     Khalistan is the Sikh homeland declared independent on 
     October 7, 1987. ``The Indian government is dedicated to 
     wiping out the Sikh religion,'' he said. ``Nations that do 
     not have political power perish. The only way to ensure that 
     the Sikh religion can survive is to liberate Khalistan as 
     soon as possible,'' he said.
       ``This attack shows that India is not a democracy, despite 
     its pretensions,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``Democracies don't 
     attack minorities and minority religions. Democracies don't 
     commit genocide.''
       Indian security forces have murdered over 250,000 Sikhs 
     since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State 
     Magistracy and human-rights organizations. These figures were 
     published in the book ``The Politics of Genocide'' by 
     Inderjit Singh Jaijee. India has also killed over 200,000 
     Christians in Nagaland since 1947, over 80,000 Kashmiris 
     since 1988, and tens of thousands of other minorities.
       A report issued last year by the Movement Against State 
     Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 
     52,268 political prisoners under the repressive ``Terrorist 
     and Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA) even though it expired 
     in 1995. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. There 
     has been no list published of those who were acquitted under 
     TADA and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. 
     Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are 
     tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political 
     prisoners. On February 28, 42 Members of the U.S. Congress 
     from both parties wrote to President Bush to urge him to work 
     for the release of Sikh political prisoners. The MASR report 
     quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as writing ``if we add up 
     the figures of the last few years the number of innocent 
     persons killed would run into lakhs [lsqb]hundreds of 
     thousands.[rsqb]''
       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 
     terrorist activity in Punjab, Khalistan, and in neighboring 
     Kashmir. The book ``Soft Target'', written by Canadian 
     journalists Brian McAndrew and Zuhair Kashmeri, shows that 
     the Indian government blew up its own airliner in 1985 to 
     blame Sikhs and justify further repression. It quotes an 
     agent of the Canadian Security Investigation Service (CSIS) 
     as saying, ``If you really want to clear up the incidents 
     quickly, take vans down to the Indian High Commission and the 
     consulates in Toronto and Vancouver. We know it and they know 
     it that they are involved.'' On January 2, the Washington 
     Times reported that India sponsors cross-border terrorism in 
     the Pakistani province of Sindh.
       Christians have been victims of a campaign of terror that 
     has been going on since Christmas 1998. Churches have been 
     burned, Christian schools and prayer halls have been 
     attacked, nuns have been raped, and priests have been killed. 
     Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive 
     while they slept in their jeep by militant Hindu members of 
     the RSS, the parent organization of the ruling BJP. Earlier 
     this year, over 5,000 Muslims were murdered by Hindus in 
     Gujarat, according to The Hindu. These attacks were planned 
     by the government, according to human-rights organizations, 
     and news reports quoted a police officer as saying they had 
     orders not to intervene to stop the violence.
       ``India's efforts to eliminate the Sikh religion are doomed 
     to fail,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``This terrible act of police 
     brutality shows that India is neither secular nor democratic, 
     and it is time to launch a Shantmai Morcha to liberate our 
     homeland, Khalistan, so that the Sikh Nation can finally 
     enjoy the glow of freedom that was promised to us in 1947. 
     Sovereignty is our birthright, and self-determination is the 
     cornerstone of democracy. It is time for self-determination 
     for all the peoples of South Asia.''

                                  ____
                                  

               [lsqb]From the Hindu, April 16, 2002[rsqb]

                 Gujarat Riot Toll Could Be Up to 5,000

       Jaipur, April 15.--Various social and political groups and 
     human rights organizations, which held a public meeting here 
     over the week-end to protest against the recent violence in 
     Gujarat, demanded removal of the Narendra Modi Government and 
     spoke out against the move to hold elections to the State 
     Assembly prior to the return of normalcy.
       The meeting addressed by K.S. Subramanyam, former Director-
     General of Police, Tripura; Magsaysay Award winner, Aruna 
     Roy; noted economist, Prabhat Patnaik; Renuka Khanna, PUCL 
     Activist from Baroda in Gujarat and others, asked for 
     immediate steps to restore people's faith in the system in 
     the riot-ravaged Gujarat.
       Presenting the report of a delegation comprising prominent 
     citizens who toured the affected areas of Gujarat, Mr. 
     Subramanyam, who was a member of the delegation, said the 
     police in Gujarat had extended a helping hand to the rioters 
     on the instructions of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.
       The official records speak of over 700 casualties in 
     Gujarat riots but they had learnt that the number of those 
     killed could be between 2,000 and 5,000, he observed. 
     ``Senior administrative as well as police officers confided 
     with us that in a meeting with the officials called on the 
     eve of the VHP-announced bandh of February 28, Mr. Modi had 
     asked them to honour Hindu sentiments''. This directive made 
     the officers passive spectators to what went on in Gujarat on 
     the day of bandh and thereafter, Mr. Subramanyam said.
       He also said the delegation could see that the Godhra 
     carnage itself was not the result of any pre-planned strategy 
     but the outcome of a tussle between the Kar Sevaks in the 
     train and the people living in the slum clusters near the 
     railway station. Ms. Renuka Khanna said the police colluding 
     with the rioters to wreak havoc with the lives and property 
     of the minority community, would only lead to the birth of 
     terrorism.
       Ms. Aruna Roy said it was for villagers to preserve the 
     pluralistic culture of India's rural areas and stop trouble-
     makers from disturbing the social fabric.
       Prof. Patnaik traced the roots of the social and communal 
     unrest to the growing unemployment and poverty in the wake of 
     globalisation.
       The meeting, which held the Gujarat Government, its police 
     and administration fully responsible for the killings in that 
     State, also found them guilty of discriminating against the 
     victims and their families later, as well by denying them 
     relief and compensation. By giving a clean chit to Mr. Modi, 
     the National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre too 
     shared the guilt of the genocide in Gujarat, the meeting 
     noted.

     

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