Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Bill Clinton President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President: ‘Since 1984, Indian government police, paramilitary forces, and death squads have killed over 115,000 Sikhs advocating freedom for Khalistan. Since 1978, India has refused to allow Amnesty International’ within its borders. Closed to human rights monitors, the Sikh homeland reels under Indian government oppression. We ask you to take action in support of the right to self-determination of Khalistan and against India’s oppression of the Sikh people against India’s oppression of the Sikh people.
The government of India has persistently pursued means antithetical to International standards on basic human rights and freedoms to crush the peaceful movement for a free Khalistan. Recently, Sikh political leader Simranjit Singh Mann was charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA); His crime was speaking for the freedom: of Khalistan through nonviolent means. The TADA Jaws have been roundly condemned by the world’s most respected human rights organizations as mere government tools of oppression. Under TADA, the presumption of innocence is reversed to a presumption of guilt, the democratic freedoms of speech and association are denied, and the accused can be field without trial for over two years. TADA explicitly violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Peat Nabors Human Rights Committee has condemned these draconian laws as “disturbing” and “completely unacceptable.”
Article extracted from this publication >> October 14, 1994
