[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 17, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1837-E1838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     STATE DEPARTMENT TERRORISM VIDEO OFFENSIVE, MUST BE WITHDRAWN

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                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 17, 2003

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, recently the State Department put out a video 
called ``Terrorism: A War Without Borders'' that is offensive. The 
video portrays all Sikhs as terrorists. This characterization is 
inaccurate. It is also offensive to any fair-minded person. How can the 
State Department portray an entire group as terrorists? Secretary 
Powell should order the immediate withdrawal of this offensive video. 
This kind of stereotyping is simply unacceptable.
  There are more than half a million Sikhs in the United States. Are 
they all terrorists, Mr. Speaker? They are active in all phases of 
American life, from law to medicine to agriculture to information 
technology. These are people who contribute a lot to America's way of 
life. Many of them were attacked after September 11, yet they still 
believe in America.
  To label all Sikhs terrorists demeans the Sikh people, their faith, 
and their national aspirations and culture. This is extremely unfair. 
Yet the video consistently labels Sikhs as ``terrorists'' while 
ignoring the brutal atrocities carried out against minorities by the 
Indian government. For example, the video's description of the attack 
on the Golden Temple in June 1984 simply refers to ``Sikhs,'' thus 
condemning all Sikhs as members of a terrorist organization.
  What the video ignores is that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 
General Shabeg Singh, and many other Sikh leaders took refuge in the 
Golden Temple to protect themselves from the atrocities that the Indian 
government was already carrying out. They had been threatened with 
violence for peacefully speaking out on behalf of the rights of their 
people.
  Over 20,000 Sikhs were killed over that three-day period in June 1984 
as the Indian government attacked the Golden Temple and 38 other Sikh 
Gurdwaras throughout Punjab to frighten the Sikhs and end their 
movement to free themselves. Instead, just as Bhindranwale predicted, 
they laid the foundations for an independent Sikh state called 
Khalistan, which finally declared its independence from India on 
October 7, 1987. Let me be among the first to congratulate the Sikhs on 
the upcoming anniversary of that event.
  Mr. Speaker, we all seek good relations with India. But it is 
offensive and inappropriate to suppress atrocities and spread 
inaccurate propaganda to achieve this objective. Why is our government 
placing the derogatory label of terrorist on an entire people? This is 
not something the government of the United States, which was founded on 
tolerance, should be doing.
  The State Department should immediately remove this from circulation 
immediately so that it can either be corrected or withdrawn. Fairness 
demands that we stop labelling entire peoples with derogatory 
characterizations like ``terrorist.''
  Our government should stop American aid and trade with India until 
the Sikhs, the Nagas, the Kashmins and all the people of South Asia 
enjoy full freedom and democratic

[[Page E1838]]

rights and we should strongly and actively support these peoples in 
their effort to have self-determination in free and independent states.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the recent letter from 
International Sikh Organization to Secretary of State Powell about this 
video into the Record.


                            Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Tenth Master

                                    Washington, DC, July 29, 2003.
     Hon. Colin Powell 
     Secretary of State, Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Powell: On behalf of the 25 million strong 
     Sikh Nation and over 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, I am 
     writing to express the outrage of the Sikh community at the 
     new video ``Terrorism: A War Without Borders.'' While Sikhs 
     fully support the war against terrorism, your video 
     inaccurately depicts Sikhs as terrorists.
       The video is offensive to Sikhs around the world. It 
     significantly misrepresents the Sikh faith and the Sikh 
     culture. The video inaccurately uses the term ``Sikh 
     terrorist'' to broadly label all of the world's 25 million 
     Sikhs--500,000 of whom live in the United States--and 
     condemns all people of the Sikh faith. This is offensive and 
     inaccurate.
       The video's description of the June 1984 Indian military 
     attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most sacred of 
     Sikh shrines, is completely bogus and entirely false. Every 
     terrorist act cited in the video is described as either the 
     work of an individual or a group of a certain nationality or 
     a group with its own identity. But in the 1984 Attack on 
     Darbar Sahib, the video refers to the terrorists as 
     ``Sikhs''. It shows Sikhs, easily recognizable from their 
     turbans and beards, with weapons in the Darbar Sahib complex 
     along with some Indian soldiers. The fact is that there were 
     no ``terrorists'' in Darbar Sahib. Sikh leaders, including 
     Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and others, took refuge there 
     to protect themselves from Indian government violence against 
     Sikhs. Letters reprinted in the book Chakravyuh: Web of 
     Indian Secularism show conclusively that India pre-planned 
     this attack in order to kill Bhindranwale and other Sikh 
     leaders who spoke out peacefully for Sikh sovereignty. After 
     the attack, Indira Gandhi said, ``I have broken the back of 
     the Sikh Nation by attacking the Golden Temple.'' If the 
     sanctity of the Golden Temple cannot be protected, how can 
     the Sikh Nation survive?
       Labelling all Sikhs who support an independent, sovereign 
     Khalistan as terrorists is the propaganda line of the 
     repressive Indian regime. I would expect better from the 
     State Department, especially under your outstanding 
     leadership, than to spout the cliches of Indian 
     disinformation.
       The segment on the Darbar Sahib attack states: ``In an 
     effort to establish an independent state, Sikh terrorists 
     seized Darbar Sahib Shrine in Amritsar, India. Prime Minister 
     Indira Gandhi ordered a military campaign to drive out the 
     terrorists. Hundreds were killed.'' In fact, over 20,000 were 
     murdered in the attack on Darbar Sahib and 38 other Sikh 
     Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, which was known as Operation 
     Bluestar. The aim of this operation was to wipe out the Sikh 
     religion.
       In actuality, it is the Indian government that is the 
     terrorist organization. The Washington Times reported on 
     January 2, 2002 that the Indian government is sponsoring 
     cross-border terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh. 
     India stationed troops on the border in Kashmir while 
     Pakistani troops were helping American forces look for Al 
     Qaeda operatives, forcing Pakistan to divert troops to that 
     border and reducing the effectiveness of their help in the 
     search for Al Qaeda. This was a de facto pro-terrorist 
     action. It has provided heavy water to Iran and has done 
     business with Iraq for many years. The Indian oil minister 
     declared Iraq ``a strategic partner.''
       In November 1994, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported 
     that India paid the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, 
     about $1.5 billion to organize and support covert terrorist 
     activities in Punjab and Kashmir. Two independent reports and 
     an article in the New York Times magazine all showed that 
     Indian forces were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs 
     in Chithisinghpora in March 2000 during President Clinton's 
     visit. Indian forces were caught red-handed trying to set 
     fire to a Gurdwara and some Sikh homes in a village in 
     Kashmir. The book Soft Target conclusively shows that India 
     blew up its own airliner, killing 329 innocent people, to 
     blame the Sikhs. Why is the State Department trying to 
     appease such a state?
       In all, over 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian 
     government since the Golden Temple attack, according to 
     figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and human 
     rights groups and reported in The Politics of Genocide by 
     Inderjit Singh Jaijee. According to a report by the Movement 
     Against State Repression (MASR), the Indian government admits 
     to holding 52,268 political prisoners under the brutal, 
     repressive ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act'' 
     (TADA), which expired in 1995. Another 50,000 have been 
     arrested, tortured, killed in custody, declared 
     ``unidentified,'' and secretly cremated. The man who exposed 
     this secret cremation policy, Jaswant Singh Khalra, was 
     kidnapped by the police and murdered while in police custody. 
     His body was never handed over to his family.
       India has murdered over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland 
     since 1947, over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and tens 
     of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, 
     and others. An Indian Cabinet minister said that everyone who 
     lives in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to 
     Hinduism.
       Since Christmas 1998, priests have been murdered, nuns have 
     been raped, churches have been burned, Christian schools have 
     been attacked. Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, 
     ages 8 and 10, were burned to death while sleeping in their 
     jeep. Their killers chanted ``Victory to Hannuman,'' a Hindu 
     god. None of these people has been brought to justice. 
     Missionary Joseph Cooper was deported back to Pennsylvania 
     after Hindus attacked him so severely that he had to spend a 
     week in the hospital. No action has been taken in these 
     cases. Police broke up a Christian religious festival by 
     opening fire on it. All over India, laws are being passed 
     that ban conversion to any religion except Hinduism.
       Newspaper reports show that the Indian government pre-
     planned the attack on Muslims in Gujarat last year in which 
     2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were killed, according to the Indian 
     newspaper The Hindu. Police were ordered to stand aside and 
     let the massacre happen, in a striking parallel to the 1984 
     Delhi massacre of Sikhs in which police were locked in their 
     barracks while state-run television and radio called for more 
     Sikh blood.
       Secretary Powell, the State Department owes the Sikh Nation 
     an apology. On behalf of the Sikh community in America and 
     worldwide, I request an apology and correction from you for 
     this offensive and inaccurate video. The video should be 
     corrected or withdrawn. I thought that the United States of 
     America was dedicated to the truth, not to spreading the 
     disinformation of a terrorist regime.
       I would like to meet with you about this at your earliest 
     convenience. Please contact me at the above number to let me 
     know when we can meet. Thank you for your time.
           Sincerely,
                                          Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
     President, International Sikh Organization.

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