WASHINGTON: Mr, Condit said for the Congressional Record, “I rise today to condemn a blatant abuse of power by the Indian Government. 1 join many other Members of the House who have spoken previously about the kidnapping of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who languishes in illegal detention more than six months after being taken from his home in Amritsar on September 6. Last year, 65 Members of the House wrote to Indian Prime Minister Rao demanding Mr, Khalra’s release. So far, we have been ignored, Mr. Khalra must be released immediately, The March612, 1996, issue of World Sikh News reports that a key witness to the Khalra kidnapping, Kirpal Singh Randhawa, secretary of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, filed a complaint in India’s Supreme Court starting that “police had threatened to eliminate him and. his family,” It seems that the authorities will 0 to any length to keep Mr. Randhawa from testifying about Mr. Khalra’s abduction. Mr. Randhawa alsa said that he feared that the Indian Government will file a false legal case against him to prevent him from testifying, (I will be placing this article in the Record.) Such actions by the Indian Government are not unprecedented. In the State Department’s 1996 country report on human rights in India, it is reproach that “the brother of Surinder Singh Fauji was held for a week in Incommunicado detention, apparently to persuade Fauji, not to testify on extrajudicial executions he witnessed in 1993.” How can India call itself a democracy when the police are so out of control?

Recently I received a chilling video documentary called “Disappearances in Punjab,” it details murder, torture ‘and rapes of Sikhs in Punjab Khalistan, Tam introducing into the Record, a press release from the Council of Khalistan regarding this video.(Story ‘was featured in WSN) In “Disappearance in Punjab,” a female officer from the Punjab police is interviewed. Her testimony is frightening to anyone who cares about basic human freedom; this police officer says that she saw “atrocities including those against women that I cannot bear. Women suffer much. Male officers torture them, they also Tape detainees. Some who had been picked up were in the Interrogation center. Then Tread that they had been killed in an encounter. But I had seen them in detention, “the policewoman, is asked, “What was their condition in custody” Their legs had been broken,” she replies. “Could they have run away?” asks the interviewer. ‘They could not even have walked,” is her chilling reply.

This video, and the threat against Mr. Randhawa, prove that India’s claim to be a democracy is a complete fraud. Democracies respect ‘human rights. Democracies do not threaten to Mall witnesses or falsely detain their relatives, Democracies neither Kidnap people nor arrest them for publishing reports that embarrass the government, as in Mr. Khalra’s case. In short, democracies respect and practice freedom. India does not, tis against this background that the Sikh Nation declared itself independent on October7. 1987. With that declaration, the independent county of Khalistan was formed. The Council of Khalistan, which brought these gruesome cases to my attention, ‘was formed at that time to serve as Khalistan’s government in exile. India’s response to the Sikh Nation’s exercise of its sovereignty has been to step up the repression, as these cases show. This repressive campaign of terror and genocide by the Indian regime has caused the deaths of over 150,000 Sikhs since 1984. Thousands of other non-Hindus have also been called in Kashmir, Nagaland. And other areas struggling for human rights and self-determination. ‘The United States Government does not have to sit idly by and let India continue this brutal repression. There are two bills pending which address this situation. They are H.R. 1425, the Human Rights in India Act, which will seek to cut off United States development aid to India until India observes basic human rights; and House Concurrent Resolution 32, which seeks a plebiscite on independence in Khalistan under international supervision so that the Sikh Nation can freely choose its own future in free and fair vote, the way democracies make decisions. I urge my colleagues to support both of these bills, It is imperative that we assist the oppressed Sikhs of Khalistan so that they too, can enjoy the glow of freedom, as we do here in America.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 17, 1996