[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16522-16523]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




INDIAN PRIME MINISTER TO SPEAK TO UNITED NATIONS--U.N. SHOULD PRESS HIM 
                       ON HUMAN RIGHTS, TERRORISM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 10, 2002

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, on September 13, the Prime 
Minister of India,

[[Page 16523]]

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will speak to the United Nations in New York. 
There are several issues that should be brought up while Mr. Vajpayee 
is there.
  I am sure that Prime Minister Vajpayee will denounce terrorism. India 
claims to be democratic, after all. But India continues to sponsor 
cross-border terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh, according to 
the Washington Times. It continues to engage in terrorist activity 
against the minorities within its own borders. Recently, India admitted 
that its troops were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in the 
village of Chithisinghpora in March 2000. The Council of Khalistan 
issued an excellent press release on this, which I will introduce 
later. In November 1994, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that 
the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, was paid $1.5 billion by 
the Indian government to foment terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. The 
book Soft Target alleged that India blew up its own airliner in 1985 to 
blame Sikhs and justify further repression. These are just a few 
examples.
  India continues to practice repression against its minorities. Its 
ongoing repression of Christians is well-documented. Recently, The 
Hindu reported that the death toll for this spring's violence in 
Gujarat is as high as 5,000. That is more people than were killed in 
the World Trade Center attack. The newspaper also reported that police 
officers were ordered not to intervene to stop the violence, in a scary 
echo of the Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. Recently, in Malout, a 
peaceful demonstration of Sikh activists was fired upon by Indian 
police. In 1997, police gunfire broke up a Christian religious 
festival. The pattern continues.
  America cannot and must not permit this to go unchallenged. When 
Prime Minister Vajpayee is in the country, he must be pressed on the 
issues of terrorism, democracy, and human rights. We should halt aid to 
India until it corrects these patterns of behavior, and we should 
support self-determination for all of the 17 freedom movements within 
India's borders. These measures will help to end terrorism in South 
Asia and promote real democracy and stability there. Mr. Speaker, I 
would like to place the Council of Khalistan's press release on India's 
admission that it was responsible for the Chithisinghpora massacre into 
the Record at this time.

      Indian Government Admits Its Responsibility for Massacre in 
     Chithisinghpora--Evidence a Fraud, Indian Soldiers Implicated

       Washington, DC, Aug. 2, 2002.--According to today's 
     Washington Times, the Indian government has admitted that its 
     forces were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in the 
     village of Chithisinghpora, Kashmir on March 20, 2000. India 
     finally admitted that the evidence it used to implicate 
     alleged Kashmiri ``militants'' in the murders was faked.
       This is a victory for Sikhs, including the Council of 
     Khalistan, who have maintained that the Indian government is 
     responsible for this atrocity. However, it is only after 
     India's case against the alleged ``militants'' was exposed 
     that it took responsibility.
       The massacre was timed to occur at the time of former 
     President Clinton's visit to India. Recent attacks on 
     minorities also blamed on alleged ``militants'', took place 
     just before Secretary of State Colin Powell visited. At the 
     time of the Chithisinghpora massacre, Dr. Gurmit Singh 
     Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, strongly 
     condemned the murders. ``What motive would Kashmiri freedom 
     fighters have to kill Sikhs? This would be especially stupid 
     when President Clinton is visiting. The freedom movements in 
     Kashmir, Khalistan, Nagaland, and throughout India need the 
     support of the United States,'' he said. Khalistan is the 
     Sikh homeland declared independent on October 7, 1987.
       The massacres continued a pattern of repression and 
     terrorism against minorities by the Indian government, which 
     it attempts to blame on other minorities to divide and rule 
     the minority peoples within its artificial borders. In 
     November 1994, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that 
     the Indian government paid the late governor of Punjab, 
     Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to organize and support covert 
     terrorist activity in Punjab, Khalistan, and in neighboring 
     Kashmir. The book Soft Target, written by Canadian 
     journalists Brian McAndrew and Zuhair Kashmeri, shows that 
     the Indian government blew up its own airliner in 1985 to 
     blame Sikhs and justify further repression. It quotes an 
     agent of the Canadian Security Investigation Service (CSIS) 
     as saying, ``If you really want to clear up the incidents 
     quickly, take vans down to the Indian High Commission and the 
     consulates in Toronto and Vancouver. We know it and they know 
     it that they are involved.'' On January 2, the Washington 
     Times reported that India sponsors cross-border terrorism in 
     the Pakistani province of Sindh.
       A report issued last year by the Movement Against State 
     Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 
     51,268 political prisoners under the repressive ``Terrorist 
     and Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA) even though it expired 
     in 1995. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. There 
     has been no list published of those who were acquitted under 
     TADA and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. 
     Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are 
     tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political 
     prisoners. On February 28, 42 Members of the U.S. Congress 
     from both parties wrote to President Bush to urge him to work 
     for the release of Sikh political prisoners. The MASR report 
     quotes the Pubjab Civil Magistracy as writing ``if we add up 
     the figures of the last few years the number of innocent 
     persons killed would run into lakhs [hundreds of 
     thousands].''
       Indian security forces have murdered over 250,000 Sikhs 
     since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State 
     Magistracy and human-rights organizations. These figures were 
     published in the book The Politics of Genocide by Inderjit 
     Singh Jaijee. India has also killed over 200,000 Christians 
     in Nagaland since 1947, over 80,000 Kashmiris since 1988, and 
     tens of thousands of other minorities. Christians have been 
     victims of a campaign of terror that has been going on since 
     Christmas 1998. Churches have been burned, Christian schools 
     and prayer halls have been attacked, nuns have been raped, 
     and priests have been killed. Missionary Graham Staines and 
     his two sons were burned alive while they slept in their jeep 
     by militant Hindu members of the RSS, the parent organization 
     of the ruling BJP.
       ``It is good that India has finally admitted its 
     responsibility for the massacre at Chithisinghpora,'' Dr. 
     Aulakh said. ``Now I urge the U.S. government to place 
     sanctions on India as a country and practices and promotes 
     terrorism. The Chithisinghpora massacre proves that India is 
     not a democracy, but a repressive, terrorist state which 
     murders it minorities.''

     

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