[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9] [Senate] [Pages 12524-12525] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN COMMEMORATES GOLDEN TEMPLE MASSACRE ______ HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS of new york in the house of representatives Thursday, June 22, 2006 Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on June 3 Sikhs from around the East Coast gathered here in Washington to commemorate the June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple by the Indian government. That attack occurred simultaneously with attacks on 37 other Gurdwaras in what came to be known as Operation Bluestar. Operation Bluestar took the lives of over 20,000 Sikhs in Punjab. The demonstration was organized by the Council of Khalistan, which has been leading the peaceful, nonviolent, democratic Sikh struggle for independence for almost 20 years, ever since Khalistan declared its independence from India in 1987. Mr. Speaker, given the repression of the Sikhs and other minorities, such as Christians, Muslims, and others, I think we would do well for America to support the freedom movement in Khalistan and throughout the subcontinent. This is especially so given that India has a history of anti-American activities. It is time to press India to pay attention to human rights by stopping our aid and trade with that country and it is time to put the Congress on record in support of self-determination. The essence of democracy is the right to self-determination. I would like to add the Council of Khalistan's press release on its June 3 demonstration to the Record at this time. Sikhs Commemorate Golden Temple Attack Washington, DC, June 3, 2006.--Sikhs from Philadelphia, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere on the East Coast gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 3 to commemorate the Indian government's brutal military attack on the Golden Temple, the center and seat of the Sikh religion, and 125 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, in June 1984, in which over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered. They chanted slogans such as ``India out of Khalistan'', ``Khalistan Zindabad'', and others. In addition, demonstrations were held in several other cities throughout the world. During the Golden Temple attack, young boys ages 8 to 13 were taken outside and asked if they supported Khalistan, the independent Sikh country. When they answered with the Sikh religious incantation ``Bole So Nihaf,'' they were shot to death. The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures, written in the time of the Sikh Gurus, were shot full of bullet holes and burned by the Indian forces. The Golden Temple attack was a brutal chapter in India's repression of the Sikhs, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of Khalistan, which leads the struggle for Khalistan's independence. ``Sikhs cannot forgive or forget this atrocity against the seat of our religion by the Indian government, said Dr. Aulakh ``This brutal attack clarified that there is no place in India for Sikhs,'' he said. On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared its independence from India, naming its new country Khalistan. ``Sant Bhindranwale said that attacking the Golden Temple would lay the foundation stone of Khalistan, and he was right,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``Instead of crushing the Sikh movement for Khalistan, as India intended, the attack strengthened it,'' he said. ``The flame of freedom still burns bright in the hearts of Sikhs despite the deployment of over half a million Indian troops to crush it,'' he said. A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 52,268 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. MASR report quotes the Punjab 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.]'' The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the country, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs ``worse than a genocide.'' [[Page 12525]] In the introduction to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's new book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes that ``Hindu militants'' are responsible for the massacre of 38 Sikhs at Chithisinghpora in March 2000. This reflects previous findings by the Punjab Human Rights Organization, the International Human Rights Organization, the Movement Against State Repression, and New York Times reporter Barry Bearak. President Clinton writes, ``During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold blood. If I hadn't made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive.'' ``Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and get justice,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``When Khalistan is free, we will have our own Ambassadors, our own representation in the UN and other international bodies, and our own leaders to keep this sort of thing from happening. We won't be at the mercy of the brutal Indian regime and its Hindu militant allies,'' he said. ``Democracies don't commit genocide. India should act like a democracy and allow a plebiscite on independence for Khalistan and all the nations of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``As Professor Darshan Singh, a former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh','' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``We must continue to pray for and work for our God-given birthright of freedom,'' he said. ``Without political power, religions cannot flourish and nations perish.''