Through the remarkable efforts of stalwarts like Congressmen Wally Herger, Dan Burton, Les Aspins, Bob McEwen, Helen Bentley, Vic Fazio, Christopher Shays, Major Owens, Norman Shumway, Jim Moody, Donald Lukens, Esteban Torres, Kweisi Mfume, Robert Dornan, David Dreler and others, HR 1067 was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means seeking to provide relief to the Sikhs in Punjab by denying India the most favored nation trade treatment to its products. The Committee has now to make a decision on HR 1067 in the near future.

‘As could be expected India has launched a massive drive to counter the House resolution through expensive lobbying, personal meetings with Congressmen, outright propaganda, financial support to the opponents of the activist Congressmen, seminars and conferences by Hindu groups against HR 1067 etc. It is a classic case of outside interference in the Congressional affairs, for India seeks to tell Congress what to legislate and what to debate.

The sponsors moved HR 1067 on the following grounds:

 

  1. Amnesty International, in an August 1988 report, confirmed that it had received reports that dozens of prisoners being held in Indian prisons across the country had died in police custody after being tortured, that the most persistent allegations of torture of political prisoners have come from the Punjab and that such allegations have been confirmed by an official commission of inquiry.
  2. Amnesty International attributed police excesses, arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention without trial to the removal of legal safeguards in security laws and “official failure to clamp down on lawlessness by India’s national and state security forces.”
  3. Amnesty International has urged the Indian government to stagnate “persistent allegations that political activists have been killed in staged “encounters” with the police, especially in the Punjab.
  4. The New York Times and India Today have reported on the use of pro-government death squads in the Punjab and the practice of hiring vigilantes to kill Sikhs,
  5. Hundreds of Sikhs have been kept in prison awaiting trial, many reportedly without charge, including over 200 held in the Jodhpur Jail since 1984, many of them women, children pilgrims caught up in the attack on the Golden Temple in June 1984.
  6. Records of deaths in prisons in India are frequently not kept.
  7. Amnesty International observers have not been allowed inside the Punjab to inyestigate these and other allegations of human rights abuses.
  8. The majority of the Sikh people still support a peaceful resolution of the difficulties in the Punjab.

India has, firstly, mischievously sought to question the credibility of Amnesty International, secondly, claimed that it had released the Jodhpur prisoners (88 of them were rearrested immediately after release and are now lodged in Punjab jails); thirdly, falsely claimed that no incidents of fake police encounters or torture of innocent Sikhs have taken place (this is contrary to Justice Bains and Justice Tiwana’s official findings); fourthly, has spread the canard that the sponsoring Congressmen are working under the influence of people who are inimical to India’s interests (the US Congressmen are not puppets like some of the MPs in India and have a clear volition of their own); and fifthly, has taken the strange position that Amnesty international etc cannot send their representatives in Punjab because it would challenge India’s sovereignty! It is recalled here that even Russia, China, other communist states and Pakistan to name a few have been allowing these UN approved human rights groups inside their countries.

We urge all those interested in human dignity, freedom justice and equality to support the efforts of the Congressmen in all possible ways. Now is the time to act, get in touch with your Congressmen and Senators, brief them on the latest situation in Punjab, send them materials on torture and fake encounters in respect of Sikh youth, rape and harassment of young Sikh women, explain to them about the continuing violation of the sanctity of the holy places of the Sikhs in Punjab; contribute whatever you can in terms of time and money; distribute materials published by Amnesty International, Asia Watch, Churchil etc. sign and send petitions put out by Churchil and other human rights organizations. Of special interest is the letter to the editor published last week by Dr. Koonar on ways and means to deal with the above situation and steps are being taken by organizations like WSO, Sikh Cultural Society, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, ISO and the like.

They are little steps indeed. But like the little droplets of rain thes¢ seemingly insignificant steps will make a small stream, a little river and finally a big ocean. TIME TO ACT IS NOW.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 23, 1989