[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 24289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      INDIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ISSUE NEW REPORT ON ENFORCED 
  DISAPPEARANCES, ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS, AND SECRET CREMATIONS IN INDIA

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 1999

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the Committee for Coordination on 
Disappearances in Punjab recently issued a new report on enforced 
disappearances, arbitrary executions, and secret cremations of Sikhs in 
Punjab. It documents the names and addresses of 838 victims of this 
tyrannical policy. The report is both shocking and distressing.
  The Committee is an umbrella organization of 18 human rights 
organizations under the leadership of Hindu human rights activist Ram 
Narayan Kumar. The report discusses ``illegal abductions and secret 
cremations of dead bodies.'' In fact, the Indian Supreme Court has 
itself described this policy as ``worse than a genocide.''
  The report includes direct testimony from members of the victims' 
families, other witnesses, and details of these brutal cases. The human 
rights community has stated that over 50,000 Sikhs have ``disappeared'' 
at the hands of the Indian government in the early nineties. How can 
any country, especially one that claims to be the ``world's largest 
democracy,'' get away with so many killings, abductions and other 
atrocities? Will the Indian government prosecute the officials of its 
security forces who are responsible for these acts? Will the Indian 
government compensate the victims and their families?
  If America can compensate the Japanese victims of the internment 
camps during World War II, why can't India compensate the families 
whose husbands, sons, wives, or daughters have been murdered? Murder is 
a lot more serious than internment, and these acts are much more 
recent.
  The Council of Kahlistan recently issued a press release on the 
Committees's report. I am placing that release in the Congressional 
Record for the information of my colleagues.

   New Report Exposes Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary Executions, 
 Secret Cremations of Sikhs by Indian Government Identifies Victims of 
                            Genocide by Name

       Washington, D.C., September 15, 1999--The Committee for 
     Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab, led by Hindu human-
     rights activist Ram Narayan Kumar, has issued an interim 
     report entitled ``Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary 
     Executions, and Secret Cremations'' which exposes secret mass 
     cremations of Sikhs by the Indian government.
       The report contains a 21-page list of 838 victims who were 
     identified by name and address. This is a very preliminary 
     report. Three of India's most respected human rights group 
     issued a joint letter in 1997 stating that between 1992 and 
     1994, 50,000 Sikhs were made to disappear by Indian forces. 
     They were arrested, tortured, and murdered by police, then 
     their bodies were declared ``unidentified'' and cremated. The 
     Indian Supreme Court described the situation as ``worse than 
     a genocide.''
       More than 250,000 Sikhs have been killed since 1984. Over 
     200,000 Christians have been killed since 1947 and over 
     65,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 1988. 
     Thousands more languish in prisons without charge or trial, 
     according to Amnesty International. Last month, 29 Members of 
     the U.S. Congress wrote to the Prime Minister of India 
     demanding the release of these political prisoners.
       The report makes reference to the police kidnapping and 
     murder of human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra in 1995. 
     Khalra ``released some official documents which established 
     that the security agencies in Punjab had been secretly 
     cremating thousands of dead bodies labelled as 
     unidentified,'' the report noted. ``Khalra suggested the most 
     of these cremations were of people who had earlier been 
     picked up in the state on suspicion of separatist 
     sympathies,'' according to the report.
       ``In September 1995, it was Khalra's turn to disappear; he 
     was kidnapped from his Armristar home by officers of the 
     Punjab police.'' In October 1995, the police murdered Mr. 
     Khalra. Despite an order of the Supreme Court, none of the 
     police officers involved has been brought to justice. The 
     report also cited an official inquiry's findings of 
     ``flagrant violation of human rights on a mass scale.''
       ``This report shows that for Sikhs there are no human 
     rights in India,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of 
     the Council of Khalistan. ``The genocide by the Indian 
     Government shows Sikhs that there is no religious tolerance 
     in India and India will never allow Sikhs or other religious 
     minorities to exercise their religious or political rights,'' 
     he said.
       ``If India is the democracy it claims to be, then why not 
     simply hold a plebiscite on independence in Punjab, 
     Khalistan? Dr. Aulakh asked. ``Instead of doing the 
     democratic thing and allowing the people of Punjab, 
     Khalistan, of Kashmir, of Christian Nagaland to vote on their 
     political status, as America has repeatedly allowed Puerto 
     Rico to do and Canada has allowed Quebec to do, the Indians 
     try to crush the freedom movements by killing massive numbers 
     of people in these minority nations,'' he said. ``Democracies 
     don't commit genocide.''

     

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