[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 106 (Thursday, July 17, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             NAGAS OPEN OFFICE IN D.C. TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2003

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, as you know, there are many national groups 
fighting for their freedom from India. We have been following the 
struggles of the Sikhs to free their homeland of Khalistan for many 
years thanks to the tireless efforts of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, 
President of the Council of Khalistan. Now another of the minority 
nations that seeks freedom from India has opened an office to represent 
its interests in Washington, D.C. The people of Nagaland are now 
represented in a Washington office.
  I am happy to see the Nagas open a Washington office. I would like to 
take this opportunity to congratulate them. Nagaland is predominantly 
Christian and the Nagas have suffered under Indian oppression for many 
years. India has murdered over 200,000 Nagas since 1947. They are a 
separate nation and people from predominantly Hindu India, but they are 
victims of India's ongoing efforts to establish fundamentalist Hindu 
hegemony over the entire subcontinent.
  Nagaland is entitled to freedom. Freedom is the birthright of all 
peoples and nations. The essence of democracy is the right to self-
determination and this right has been denied to the people of Nagaland 
just as it has been denied to the people of the Sikh homeland, Punjab, 
Khalistan, to the Kashmiri people, and to so many other nations living 
under the boot of Indian repression. It is time for India to start 
acting like the democracy it claims to be and settling these matters in 
a peaceful, democratic manner rather than trying to suppress the people 
and their natural ambitions by force.
  The leaders of Nagaland have tried to establish their freedom 
peacefully through negotiations, but the Indian government has been 
unwilling to discuss independence with Nagaland. However, they finally 
recognized the Nagas as a separate people. This is the first step 
toward the independence of the Naga nation. Democratic India wishes to 
retain the right to continue repressing the minorities living under its 
rule.
  That is why the opening of an office representing the freedom 
struggle of Nagaland is so important, Mr. Speaker. The Sikhs have had 
such an office for a long time, and the Kashmiris have also. The more 
information that can be put out about the brutal, repressive nature of 
the Indian government, the more success all of the movements for 
freedom will have. This will also be a significant boost for basic 
human rights throughout India, where Assamese, Bodos, Dalits (the dark-
skinned aboriginal people of South Asia), Manipuris, Tamils, and so 
many others are being oppressed and killed for struggling for their 
freedom.
  We can help in this effort. It is time to stop American aid to India 
until it respects basic human rights and to declare our support for the 
freedom of Nagaland, Khalistan, Kashmir, and all the oppressed nations 
of South Asia.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert a list of persecution of 
minorities in India into the Record at this time for the information of 
my colleagues.

                   Persecution of Minorities in India


                               christians

       Over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland have been murdered by 
     the Indian government.
       Since Christmas 1998, Christians have been the favored 
     target of Indian religious persecution.
       American missionary Joseph Cooper was expelled from India 
     for preaching after he was beaten so severely he had to be 
     hospitalized for a week.
       Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and other states have recently passed 
     laws banning conversion to any religion except Hinduism.
       Recently in Gujarat the government has been conducting a 
     survey of Christians, asking how long they have been 
     Christians, how long they have been in India, citizenship, 
     and other intrusive questions.
       Hindu Nationalists associated with the parent organization 
     of the ruling party have murdered several priests.
       Several nuns have been murdered.
       A nun named Sister Ruby was forced to drink her captors' 
     urine.
       Hindu nationalists have burned churches.
       Christian schools and prayer halls have been attacked.
       Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned to 
     death while sleeping in their jeep by Hindu nationalists who 
     chanted ``Victory to Hannuman,'' a Hindu god.
       A Christian religious festival was broken up by police 
     gunfire.


                                 sikhs

       Indian police have murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984.
       52,268 Sikhs are rotting in Indian jails as political 
     prisoners without charge or trial. Some have been there since 
     1984.
       The U.S. State Department reported that the Indian 
     government paid over 41,000 cash bounties to police officers 
     for killing Sikhs. One of these was awarded to a police 
     officer who killed a three-year-old boy.
       In 1984, the Indian government attacked Sikhism's most 
     sacred shrine, the Golden Temple, and 38 other Gurdwaras 
     throughout Punjab, killing 20,000 Sikhs.
       Human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was killed in 
     police custody after he exposed India's policy of secret 
     cremations of Sikhs.
       Over 50,000 Sikhs have ``disappeared'' after they were 
     picked up by the police. They were tortured, secretly 
     cremated, then declared ``unidentified bodies'' and secretly 
     cremated.
       The Indian government paid the late governor of Punjab, 
     Surendra Nath, over $1.5 billion to generate and support 
     terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir.
       Indian forces were caught red-handed trying to set fire to 
     a Gurdwara and some Sikh homes in a village in Kashmir. Sikh 
     and Muslim villagers overwhelmed them and stopped them.
       Indian forces carried out the March 2000 massacre of 35 
     Sikhs in Chithisinghpora, according to two independent 
     studies.
       Over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered by the government in the 
     Delhi massacres of Sikhs while police, on orders, stood by 
     and did nothing.
       The Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Gurdev Singh Kaunke, was 
     murdered by the police.
       The driver for Baba Charan Singh, a religious leader, was 
     killed when his legs were tied to two jeeps that drove off in 
     opposite directions.


                                muslims

       2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were murdered in Gujarat last March.
       The police stood aside and let the murders happen. They had 
     no orders to stop it.
       According to the Hindustan Times, the government pre-
     planned that massacre.
       Over 85,000 Muslims in Kashmir have been murdered by Indian 
     forces.
       Hindu nationalists destroyed the most revered mosque in 
     India, the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, to build a Hindu temple.
       India has not kept the promise it made in 1948 to hold a 
     plebiscite on the future of Kashmir.


                                 others

       A Dalit girl was blinded by her teacher after she drank 
     water from the community pitcher.
       A Dalit constable went into a temple to take shelter on a 
     rainy day and was stoned to death by the Brahmins in 
     attendance.

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