STOCKTON: Winding up his itinerary of California D. S. Gill addressed a press conference here on November 9. He described the woeful situation in Punjab and quoted the former police chief Ribeiro on State terrorism.
Stressing the role of the Punjab Human Rights Organization of which he is the Secretary General, Mr. Gill said Punjab sorely needed a political solution.
He said on his tour, he established PHRO branches in U.K. and Canada. A U.S. branch would begin functioning in the East Coast soon with Dr. Gurcharan Singh as its head.
Mr DS. Gill was particularly critical of Karan Singh the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. He quoted various persons in Jammu who directly said Karan Singh was the patron of a Hindu fundamentalist organization responsible for the coldblooded murders of 14 Sikhs in Jammu this year.
During his two weeks stay Mr. Gill addressed gatherings at Live Oak, Yuba City, Sacramento, Stockton, Fremont, San Jose, Fresno, Delano, Los Angeles and Modesto. He said he had received a very positive response among the people here.
The following are excerpts of his talk
“Since the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights four decades ago, the international community has established law and procedures to help guarantee internationally recognized human rights. In the United States, Human Rights has emerged as a legitimate and important element of U.S. Foreign policy. Since 1973, Congress has enacted law: that link trade, aid, and other bilateral and multilateral programs to human rights. “Standards must be applied in un uniform and evenhanded manner, whether the count under scrutiny is an ally or an adversary. Bu unfortunately in the world of international diplomacy and politics the argument about human rights in any country always revolves around political expediency and trade contracts. We, therefore, call upon the U.S. Congress to formulate strategies and take actions to promote freedom and democracy all over the world by upholding concepts that are the cornerstones of America’s heritage, the right to life, freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly.
Gurcharan Singh Ghuman, Advocate, Mr. Gurdev Singh Benipal, Dr. Ranjinderpaul Singh, Mr. GS. Bal, Advocate, Mr. Malvinder Singh Mali, including myself, were arrested or detained in jails only because of our professional and human rights activities.
“Undeclared political censorship has been imposed in Punjab, Raids, searches, arrests and imprisonment of “offending” journalists are the indications of the State repression on the press. Newspapers and journals belonging to the Sikh Community and minority groups have been proscribed, viz a viz Dignity, Paigam, Samparak, Jantak Lehar, Sant Sipahi, Quami Rajniti, etc. and their printers, publishers, and editors like Mr. V.T. Rajsbekar, Mr. Sukhdev Singh, Mrs. Kamaljit Kaur, etc. have been booked under terrorists and seditious acts. Mr. Sukhdev Singh was detained in jail for six months. They have been terrorized and forced, not to highlight the ‘grievances and the human rights situation of the Punjab and the Sikhs. The national daily newspaper, “The Indian Express”, has been a victim of the State repression because of its fearless reporting and criticism of the Rajiv government. Journalists of this daily have been terrorized and their families threatened. One of them who went to a police station to lodge a com plaint was beaten up badly. He was hospitalized for a month,
“Even the Judiciary have not been spared. It has been terrorized into silence and subordination due to certain policies, interferences, and enactment by the central government of dreaded legislations which have curbed the powers of the judiciary. Mr. J.S. Mander, Judicial Magistrate, Ludhiana was transferred post haste in a most disgusting manner. Mr. Mander issued warrants of arrest of Mr. Bhajan Lal, Union Minister, who, in his speech had said that the Sikhs should be shot dead because they did not deserve to be arrested and tried by the law courts. This complaint was filed by me as the General Secretary of the Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council, The court proceedings have been staged by the Supreme Court of India, because the accused Mr. Bhajan Lal had pleaded for the transfer of the case from Punjab to some other State. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.
“More than 5,000 Sikhs belonging to all shades of opinion are rotting in jails without trial, These include leaders like Mr. Simranjeet Singh Mann, President Akali Dal (Mann), Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, former Chief Minister of Punjab; Mr. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Chief of the Shormani Gurdwara Prabanhak Committee (SGPC); Mr. Dhanna Singh, Panthic Committee Member; and Mr. Harminder Singh Sandhu, General Secretary of the All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF).
“Two young Sikh men, Ranjit Singh Gill and Sukhminder Singh Sandhu, are similarly facing extradition proceedings in a court at New York. And we are of the opinion that, given the dreaded legislations and the daily executions of Sikh youths in fake encounters, the two young men, if extradited to India, will be subjected to procedures and treatment anti pathetic to USS. federal court’s sense of decency.
“The State violence is either directed against political opponents or against those who organized themselves to oppose the arbitrary and unjust use of force by the State, Many are arrested, harassed and detained in jails because of their activities as lawyers, journalists, leaders of political groups or religious organizations. “During the last two years, a number of Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council’s members like Mr. Rajdey Singh Barnala, Mr. Jaspal Singh Sodhi, Mr. Balwant Singh Dhillon, and Mr. Jagmohan Singh, and the PHRO activists, Mr “the secretive pro government death squads are operating in Punjab which have beer assigned the job of assassinating the Sikh rebelled seen a independent Sikh state in Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 17, 1989
