[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN WRITES TO UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO EXPOSE 
                   REPRESSION OF MINORITIES IN INDIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 14, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, recently Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President 
of the Council of Khalistan wrote to the United Nations Commission on 
Human Rights in Geneva to ask them to help keep the world aware of the 
repression of minorities, including Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and 
others, in India.
  The letter pointed out that over 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by 
the Indian government, along with more than 300,000 Christians in 
Nagaland, over 88,000 Muslims in Kashmir, Muslims and Christians 
throughout India, and other minorities such as Dalits, the dark skinned 
aboriginal people of the subcontinent, Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris, 
Tamils, and others. Over 52,000 Sikhs and tens of thousands of other 
minorities are being held as political prisoners. The letter pointed 
out that the government has been involved in atrocities such as the 
massacre of Muslims in Gujarat and the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and 
that it has not punished those who have carried out atrocities against 
Christians nor the killer of Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke.
  Such atrocities are unacceptable in any country, but especially in 
one that claims to be democratic. We must take a stand for freedom. It 
is time to stop our aid to India and go on record in support of self-
determination for all the people seeking their freedom there.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to place Dr. Aulakh's letter to the Human 
Rights Commission into the Record at this time.

                                         Council of Khalistan,

                                    Washington, DC, July 13, 2004.
     Madam Justice Louise Arbour, 
     High Commissioner, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 
         Plaise des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
       Dear Justice Abrour: As the Chief Prosecutor for the 
     International Court of Justice, you helped to bring the 
     persons who committed massacres, genocide, and pogroms on the 
     innocent people of Bosnia to justice. Your work for human 
     rights around the world is well known and we salute you for 
     it. It is because of that record that I am writing to you 
     today about the plight of the Sikhs and other minorities in 
     India. The plight of the Sikhs and other minorities in India 
     is deplorable. India claims to be ``the world's largest 
     democracy'' and claims that it is a secular country, but in 
     practice it is not. As Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the 
     Golden Temple, told America's National Public Radio, ``The 
     Indian government, all the time they boast that they are 
     democratic, that they are secular, but they have nothing to 
     do with a democracy, nothing to do with a secularism. They 
     just kill Sikhs just to please the majority.'' Unfortunately, 
     Sikhs are not the only victims of this brutality. Other 
     minorities such as Christians, Muslims, even the Dalits 
     (called ``Untouchables'') are persecuted in India.
       The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 
     1984, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, 
     over 88,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988. Christians and 
     Muslims have been murdered in other parts of the country as 
     well, along with tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, 
     Dalits, Manipuri's, Tamils, and other minorities. According 
     to the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs 
     are being held as political prisoners under the repressive 
     TADA law, which expired in 1995. Amnesty International 
     reports that tens of thousands of other minorities are also 
     being held as political prisoners. These prisoners are held 
     without charge or trial in ``the world's largest democracy,'' 
     some of them since 1984! That is 20 years in illegal 
     detention. Their whereabouts are unknown. They might have 
     been killed while in police custody.
       Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra looked at the records of the 
     cremation grounds at Patti, Tam Taran, and Durgiana Mandar 
     and documented at least 6,018 secret cremations of young Sikh 
     men ages 20-30. These young Sikhs were arrested by the 
     police, tortured, murdered, then declared unidentified and 
     secretly cremated. Their bodies were not even returned to 
     their families. They have never officially been accounted 
     for. The Punjab Human Rights Commission estimates that about 
     50,000 such secret cremations have occurred.
       For exposing this horrendous atrocity, Sardar Khalra was 
     abducted by the police on September 6, 1995 while he was 
     washing his car, then murdered in police custody. The only 
     witness to his kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, has been 
     repeatedly harassed by the police. Once he was arrested for 
     trying to hand a petition to the then-British Home Minister, 
     Jack Straw, in front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
       Police SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna tortured and murdered Akal 
     Takht Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke and has never been 
     punished for doing so. K.P.S. Gill, who was responsible for 
     the murders of over 150,000 Sikhs in his time as Director 
     General of Police, is still walking around scot-free. He was 
     even involved in leading the Indian Olympic field hockey 
     team. His trip to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 was protested 
     by the Sikh community in the United States, which is over 
     half a million strong, but he was allowed to come to the 
     Olympics on an Olympic Committee visa. Immediately after the 
     Olympic hockey game, he was shipped back to Punjab as a 
     threat to peace and an affront to the Sikh community. 50 
     members of the U.S. Congress from both parties wrote to the 
     President protesting his appearance in the United States.
       In addition to this, the Indian government attacked the 
     Golden Temple in Amritsar, the center and seat of the Sikh 
     religion, in June 1984, as well as 224 other Gurdwaras (Sikh 
     places of worship) throughout Punjab. Sikh leaders Sant 
     Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, General Shabeg Singh, and others, 
     as well as over 20,000 Sikhs were killed in these attacks. 
     The Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, written in 
     the time of the Sikh Gurus, was shot full of bullet holes by 
     the Indian Army. Over 100 young Sikh boys ages 8 to 13 were 
     taken out into the courtyard and asked if they supported 
     Khalistan, the independent Sikh state. When they answered 
     with the Sikh religious incantation ``Bole So Nihal'' they 
     were summarily shot to death.
       Unfortunately, other minorities have also suffered greatly 
     under the boot of Indian repression. In March 2002, 5,000 
     Muslims were killed in Gujarat while police were ordered to 
     stand by and let the carnage happen, in an eerie parallel to 
     the Delhi massacre of Sikhs in November 1984 in which Sikh 
     police officers were locked in their barracks while the 
     state-run television and radio called for more Sikh blood.
       Christians have suffered under a wave of repression since 
     Christmas 1998. An Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and 
     his two young sons, ages 8 and 10, were burned to death while 
     they slept in their jeep by a mob of Hindu militants 
     connected with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), an 
     organization formed in support of the Fascists. The mob 
     surrounded the burning jeep and chanted ``Victory to 
     Hannuman,'' a Hindu god. None of the mob has ever been 
     brought to justice; instead the crime has been blamed on one 
     scapegoat. Mr. Staines's widow was thrown out of the country 
     after the incident. An American missionary, Joseph Cooper of 
     Pennsylvania, was expelled from India after being beaten so 
     severely that he had to spend a week in the hospital. None of 
     the persons responsible for beating Mr. Cooper has been 
     prosecuted. Churches have been burned, Christian schools and 
     prayer halls have been attacked and vandalized, priests have 
     been murdered, nuns have been raped, all with impunity. 
     Police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire.
       Amnesty International has not been allowed into Punjab 
     since 1978. Even Castro's Cuba has allowed Amnesty into the 
     country more recently. What is India hiding?
       My organization, the Council of Khalistan, is leading the 
     Sikh struggle for freedom and sovereignty. Working with the 
     Congress of the United States, we have internationalized the 
     struggle for freedom for the Sikhs and all the people of 
     South Asia since the Council of Khalistan's inception on 
     October 7, 1987, the day that the Sikh Nation declared its 
     independence from India. We have worked to preserve the 
     accurate history of the Sikhs and the repression of 
     minorities by India by preserving the information in the 
     Congressional Record. We continue to work for freedom for the 
     Sikh Nation. Self-determination is the essence of democracy.
       On behalf of the Sikh Nation, I am asking the Human Rights 
     Commission to expose India's reign of terror to the 
     international community. It is time for India to be held to 
     account for its tyrannical rule covered by a veneer of 
     democracy. Please do not let India hide behind a false claim 
     of democracy and secularism. By shining the light on India's 
     terroristic rule, you can help bring freedom and basic human 
     rights to all the people of the subcontinent.
       Thank you in advance for your attention to this situation 
     and for helping the people of South Asia.
           Sincerely,
                                          Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
     President, Council of Khalistan.

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