[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E577-E578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 26, 2003

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the right to self-determination 
is the essence of democracy. The lack of it is one reason that many of 
us here in Congress believe India falls short of a full-fledged 
democracy.
  In January 1949, India promised the United Nations that it would 
allow self-determination in Kashmir through a free and fair vote. It is 
now 2003 and this plebiscite has still not been held. India refuses to 
allow the Sikhs of Punjab, Khalistan, predominantly Christian Nagaland, 
Muslim Kashmir, and the other nations seeking their freedom from India 
to exercise their right to self determination through a free and fair 
vote, the democratic way, despite their claim that there is no support 
for independence. If not, why not just hold a vote and get the issue 
behind you?
  Instead of following the democratic principle of self-determination, 
India has tried to continue the subjugation of the Sikhs, Christians, 
Muslims, and other minorities through force. They have murdered over 
250,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland since 
1947, over 85,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands 
of other minorities, including Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, and 
Tamils. A report from the Movement Against State Repression showed that 
India admitted to holding 52,268 Sikhs as political prisoners under the 
expired TADA law, one of the most repressive laws I know of. TADA 
expired in 1995. Some of these political prisoners have been held in 
illegal detention since 1984. According to Amnesty International, tens 
of thousands of other minorities, such as Christians, Muslims, and 
others, are also being held as political prisoners. How can a 
democratic country hold political prisoners? The State Department 
reported in 1994 that over 41,000 cash bounties were paid to police 
officers for killing Sikhs. They picked up human-rights activist 
Jaswant Singh Khalra after he exposed their practice of secret 
cremations and Mr. Khalra was killed in police custody. Independent 
investigations showed that the Indian government's forces carried out 
the massacre of 35 Sikhs in March 2000.
  Recently, the All India Christian Council reported that the 
government is sending out agents to seek intrusive information about 
Christians, such as whether they are first-generation Christians and 
how long they have been in India. This is happening in a country where 
American missionary Joseph Cooper was severely beaten and had to spend 
a week in the hospital, then was thrown out of the country for the 
crime of preaching. Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two 
sons were burned to death while they slept in their jeep by militant 
Hindu nationalists chanting ``Victory to Hannuman,'' a Hindu god. 
Priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, churches have been 
burned, and schools and prayer halls have been violently attacked. A 
Christian festival was ended by police gunfire. Now two states, Gujarat 
and Tamil Nadu, have enacted laws prohibiting conversions to any 
religion except Hinduism. The survey of Christians is also occurring in 
Gujarat.
  Gujarat is the state where at least 2,000 and up to 5,000 Muslims 
were murdered last year, according to Indian newspapers. The press also 
reported that the government planned the attacks in advance.
  Mr. Speaker, the Council of Khalistan recently issued an open letter 
detailing these and other Indian government atrocities, repression, and 
violations of human rights. I urge everyone to read it. India has 18 
official languages and it is not one nation. India must stop violating 
the human rights of minorities and instead follow democratic principles 
by allowing self-determination for all the minority nations that seek 
it. That is the only way to bring real freedom, peace, and stability to 
the region. Until then, the United States should stop its aid with 
India and Congress should put this country on record in support of 
self-determination.
  I would like to place the Council of Khalistan's open letter into the 
Record at this time, Mr. Speaker. It will be very informative to my 
colleagues and the people of this country.
                                                   March 19, 2003.

Open Letter to the Sikh Nation: Khalsa Panchayat Represents Sikh Nation 
                        and Deserves Our Support


   Akali Leadership and Jathedars Are Under Indian Government Control

       We must liberate Khalistan now. This is the only way for 
     the Sikh Nation to prosper, progress, and project the Sikh 
     religion and the interest of the Sikh Nation. Nations and 
     religions without political power disappear.
       Our experience since 1947 has been very disappointing and 
     repressive. Colonial rule was better for everyone in India 
     except the Brahmins than Indian rule is. We have been 
     victimized by repression, tyranny, discrimination, and other 
     abuses of our basic, god-given rights. India has used 
     genocide, murder, torture, rape, and everything in its 
     arsenal to destroy the Sikh Nation. It has even blown up its 
     own airliner to blame it on the Sikhs, as the book Soft 
     Target, written by two Canadian journalists, proves beyond a 
     doubt. They paid former Punjab governor Surendra Nath $1.5 
     billion to foment and support terrorism in Punjab and 
     Kashmir.
       The present Sikh leadership is dishonest, corrupt, and 
     completely under Indian control. They are complicit in the 
     crimes of the Indian regime. The book Chakravyuh: Web of 
     Indian Secularism by Professor Gurtej Singh shows their 
     complicity. What a shame that they connived with the Indian 
     government before the Golden Temple invasion to murder Sant 
     Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, General Shabeg Singh, and 
     thousands of other good Sikhs who were working for Sikh 
     freedom. Over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered in the attack on the 
     Golden Temple and 38 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, 
     Khalistan in June 1984. Another 20,000 were

[[Page E578]]

     killed in the November 1984 massacres in Delhi and other 
     cities. Overall, the Indian government, which boasts about 
     being ``the world's largest democracy,'' has murdered over 
     250,000 Sikhs since 1984. The death sentence given to 
     Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar based on a false 
     confession is the latest example of India's effort to 
     eliminate the Sikh religion and intimidate the Sikh Nation.
       Indian police arrested human-rights activist Jaswant Singh 
     Khalra after he exposed their policy of mass cremation of 
     Sikhs, in which over 50,000 Sikhs have been picked up, 
     tortured, and killed, then their bodies are declared 
     unidentified and secretly cremated. Then Mr. Khalra was 
     murdered in police custody. His body was not given to his 
     family. Rajiv Singh Randhawa, the only witness to the Khalra 
     kidnapping tried to give a petition to Jack Straw, then the 
     British Home Minister and now its Foreign Minister, outside 
     the Golden Temple in Amritsar. For this, he was arrested and 
     tortured.
       Similarly, the police murdered former Jathedar of the Akal 
     Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke. His body was not handed over to 
     his family. No one has been brought to justice for the Khalra 
     kidnapping and murder. The murderer of Akal Takht Jathedar 
     Gurdev Singh Kaunke, SSP Swaran Ghotna, has never been 
     brought to trial. Nor have those who carried out the massacre 
     of 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora three years ago this month.
       According to a report by the Movement Against State 
     Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political 
     prisoners in India without charge or trial. Some have been in 
     illegal custody since 1984! Yet Chief Minister Amarinder 
     Singh denies that there are any political prisoners at all. 
     Have they murdered them all? Most of these political 
     prisoners were taken into illegal custody under the Beant 
     Singh regime, a Congress government. Can't Amarinder Singh 
     find these records? Amarinder Singh should be commended for 
     prosecuting corrupt government officials. Now he should keep 
     his promise to prosecute Parkash Singh Badal and his family 
     for their corruption during his tenure as Chief Minister. He 
     sold government jobs for money. Services were only delivered 
     after they received bribes. His wife Surinder Kaur is so 
     experienced at this corrupt practice that she could tell 
     the amount of money in a paper bag just by lifting it. 
     What a shame for the Akali government! The Badal family 
     has tarnished the pious Akali name of the first half of 
     the last century. That Sikh leadership gave sacrifices for 
     the glory of the Khalsa Panth.
       The Indian regime paid over 41,000 cash bounties to police 
     officers for killing Sikhs, according to a 1994 report from 
     the U.S. State Department. One of these bounties was paid to 
     a policeman who killed a three-year-old boy! In another case, 
     a man brought suit because he had been listed as having been 
     killed in one of these incidents but was actually alive. Who 
     was murdered in his place?
       The legs of the driver for Baba Charan Singh were tied to 
     two jeeps which drove off in opposite directions and he was 
     torn in half. An attorney in Ropar who defended Sikh youth 
     was picked up along with his wife and his two-year-old son. 
     They were made to ``disappear'' just like 50,000 other Sikhs. 
     The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's 
     murders of Sikhs ``worse than a genocide.'' On October 7, 
     1987, the Sikh Nation declared the independence of its 
     homeland, Punjab, Khalistan. No Sikh representative has ever 
     signed the Indian constitution.
       The Sikh nation has awakened. I call on all Sikhs to 
     support the Khalsa Panchayat. These good Sikhs forced 
     Jathedar Manjit Singh of Kesgarh to resign. Now Jathedar 
     Vedanti must resign along with him. Please help the Khalsa 
     Panchayat in these efforts. And work to build a party that 
     will lead a Shantmai Morcha to liberate our homeland, 
     Khalistan, from Indian occupation. Just as the Akalis took 
     control from the Mahants of the last century, we must take 
     control of our future from the new Mahants, the present Akali 
     leadership and Indian-controlled Jathedars.
       India is on the verge of disintegration. Khalistan will 
     soon be free. Home Minister L.K. Advani said that if Kashmir 
     goes, India goes. The Kashmir problem has been 
     internationalized. The only way to solve the Kashmir problem 
     is to have a referendum where the Kashmiri people can decide 
     their own future. With self-determination, the Kashmiri 
     people will either be independent or go with Pakistan. Either 
     way, Kashmir is going to go. As soon as Kashmir goes, 
     Khalistan will be independent within a year. We can achieve 
     freedom much earlier if our leadership is not under Indian 
     control and they are sincere and honest.
       Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper. Only 
     then will the Sikh Nation get justice. India must start 
     acting like a democracy and allow self-determination in the 
     form of a free and fair plebiscite on independence for 
     Punjab, Khalistan and the other nations seeking their freedom 
     from India. Let us join hands to secure our freedom, for 
     ourselves and future generations.
           Sincerely,
                                          Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
     President, Council of Khalistan.

                          ____________________