[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.
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