[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1216-E1217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CORRECTING PREVIOUS STATEMENT ON GOLDEN TEMPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 23, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I made a statement 
congratulating the Council of Khalistan on its commemoration of the 
twentieth anniversary of the massacre of Sikhs at the Golden Temple in 
June 1984. At that time, I intended to insert the Council of 
Khalistan's flyer into the Record. I even said that I was including it 
in the Record. Somehow, it did not get included. Therefore, I would 
like to place it in the Record at this time.

     20th Anniversary of the Golden Temple Massacre, June 3-6, 1984


             sikhs must have freedom in sovereign homeland

       ``If the Indian government attacks the Golden Temple, it 
     will lay the foundation stone of Khalistan.''--Sant Jarnail 
     Singh Bhindranwale.
       From June 3 throughout 6, 1984, the Indian government 
     brutally invaded the Golden Temple and 150 other Gurdwaras 
     around Punjab. Over 20,000 people were killed in these 
     attacks, including such Sikh leaders as Sant Jarnail Singh 
     Bhindranwale, who was the strongest spokesman for Sikh rights 
     and Sikh freedom. More than 100 young boys, ages 8 to 13, 
     were taken outside into the courtyard and asked whether they 
     supported Khalistan, the independent Sikh homeland. When they 
     answered with the Sikh religious incantation ``Bole So 
     Nihal,'' they were summarily shot to death. The Guru Granth 
     Sahib, the Sikh scripture, handwritten in the time of the ten 
     Sikh Gurus, was shot full of bullet holes by the Indian 
     military. Sant Bhindranwale warned that if the Indian 
     government invaded the Golden Temple, it would ``lay the 
     foundation stone for Khalistan'' and it did.


                  how can this happen in a democracy?

       ``The Indian government, all the time they boast that they 
     are democratic, that they are secular. They have nothing to 
     do with a

[[Page E1217]]

     democracy, nothing to do with a secularism. They just kill 
     Sikhs to please the majority.''--Narinder Singh, spokesman 
     for the Golden Temple, on NPR August 1997.
       U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Cal.) has said that 
     for the minorities such as Sikhs and Kashmiris ``India might 
     as well be Nazi Germany.''


            a pattern of repression against the sikh nation

       Over 250,000 Sikhs murdered since 1984.
       52,268 Sikh political prisoners, according to the Movement 
     Against State Repression
       More than 50,000 Sikhs disappeared in Indian government's 
     secret cremations. Their remains have never been given to 
     their families.
       Indian government paid over 41,000 cash bounties to police 
     to kill Sikhs
       Gurnihal Singh Pirzada, a senior officer in the IAS, 
     arrested after allegedly being seen at a meeting of gathering 
     of Punjab ``dissidents.'' Pirzada denies attending such a 
     meeting, but points out that it would not be illegal if he 
     did.
       Jaswant Singh Khalra kidnapped by police and murdered in 
     police custody after exposing Indian policy of arresting 
     Sikhs, torturing them, murdering them, cremating the bodies, 
     as ``unidentified.''
       Gurdev Singh Kaunke, former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, 
     highest Sikh religious leader, murdered by police official 
     Swaran Singh Ghotna, who has never been punished.
       The Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian 
     government paid the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, 
     the equivalent of $1.5 billion to foment and support covert 
     state terrorist activity in Punjab and Kashmir.
       This is the state of freedom in Punhap, Khalistan under 
     Indian rule.
       ``The mere fact that they have the right to choose their 
     oppressors does not mean they live in a democracy.''--Rep. 
     Edolphus Towns (D-NY).


   THE REPRESSION CONTINUES WHILE INDIA PROCLAIMS ITS SECULARISM AND 
                               DEMOCRACY

       Half a million Indian forces have been sent to Punjab, 
     Khalistan to subdue the freedom movement there. Another 
     700,000 are deployed in Kashmir. They join with the police in 
     carrying out the kinds of atrocities described above. India 
     calls this ``protecting its territorial integrity. ``
       In March 2000 in the village of Chithisinghpora, 35 Sikhs 
     were massacred. Two studies of this massacre, one by the 
     International Human Rights Organization, based in Ludhiana, 
     and the other conducted jointly by the Punjab Human Rights 
     Organization and the Movement Against State Repression, 
     concluded that the massacre was the work of Indian forces, a 
     conclusion supported by reporter Barry Bearak in the December 
     31, 2000 issue of the New York Times Magazine. In another 
     village in Kashmir, Indian troops were caught red-handed 
     trying to set fire to several Sikh houses and the local 
     Gurdwara. Sikh and Muslim villagers joined together to stop 
     this atrocity before it could be carried out
       Sikhs ruled Punjab as an independent, secular country from 
     1765 to 1849. Sikhs have never accepted the Indian 
     constitution. At the time of the transfer of power, Sikhs 
     were equal partners who were to receive sovereignty along 
     with Muslims and Hindus. When the Indian constitution was 
     adopted in 1950, no Sikh representative signed it and no Sikh 
     representative has signed it to this day.
       On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation formally declared its 
     independence from India, naming their new country Khalistan. 
     Since then, Khalistan has been under illegal occupation by 
     the Indian government and its forces.
       ``If a Sikh is not for Khalistan, he is not a Sikh.''--
     Professor Darshan Singh, former Jathedar of the Akal Takht
       Unfortunately, Sikhs are not the only victim of India's 
     brutal tyranny.
       India has murdered over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland 
     since 1947, more than 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and 
     tens of thousands of other minorities
       Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons 
     were brutally murdered by being burned to death while they 
     slept in their jeep by a mob of Hindu militants affiliated 
     with the militant, pro-Fascist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh 
     (RSS) who chanted ``Victory to Hannuman,'' a Hindu god.
       An American missionary from Pennsylvania, Joseph Cooper, 
     was expelled from the country after being so severely beaten 
     by RSS goons that he had to spend a week in the hospital.
       In January 2003, an American missionary and seven other 
     individuals were attacked.
       Christian schools and prayer halls have been attacked and 
     destroyed.
       A Christian religious festival was broken up by police 
     gunfire.
       In March 2002, between 2,000 and 5,000 Muslims were 
     brutally murdered in Gujarat. India's National Human Rights 
     Commission (NHRC), an official body, found evidence in the 
     killings of premeditation by members of Hindu extremist 
     groups and complicity by Gujarat state officials. A police 
     officer confirmed to an Indian newspaper that the massacre 
     was pre-planned by the government.
       The most revered mosque in India, the Ayodhya mosque, was 
     destroyed by Hindu mobs affiliated with the BJP and a Hindu 
     temple was built on the site.
       The states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa have all 
     passed bills barring religious conversions.


DEMOCRACIES DON'T COMMIT GENOCIDE; SUPPORT SELF-DETERMINATION IN SOUTH 
                                  ASIA

       The right to self-determination is the essence of 
     democracy. Please urge your representatives to support self-
     determination for Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, and all the 
     stations seeking their freedom. Demand a free and fair 
     plebiscite on the question of independence and an end to 
     foreign aid to India until human rights are respected.

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