DAVIS, CA: A conference on May 20, Human Rights violence in India and violence against women, highlighted the atrocities inflicted on the Sikhs and Muslims in India. The conference was organized by Panth and the Indian Cultural Association of University of California, Davis.
Dr.Vincent lacopino, member of the Physicians United for Human Rights team, which recently visited India gave a first hand report of the violation of Human Rights in Kashmir by India’s security forces. The eminent doctor said, “The intensity of killings is so great, torture so routine and such is the indiscriminate use of force that of the 130 victims our team documented, 80% of them had suffered this indignities within two weeks of our visit.”
The doctor said the Indian security forces often resort to attacks on the civilian population; these attacks are called ‘crackdowns.’ The PUHR team themselves witnessed some of these ‘crack downs’ which always involved reprisal killings. The killings were Swift and indiscriminate. Only one day, previous to the visit of the PUHR team to village Batakote, the security forces had killed a man and his son at a road side shop and burned down a house neighboring the shop. What provoked them tog0 berserk? Witnesses told PURR that a convoy of Anny vehicles was passing through the small Village when there was a loud sound; immediately the convoy halted, caught hold of two men in the nearest shop and without question shot them, Then some more soldiers went to the neighboring house and set it on fire by throwing Kerosine into it and then lighting a match. It was later found out that the loud “boom” was the result of a Sonic-bomb of a jet “flying overhead. Which the Army men took for a rocket attack directed at them.
The security forces in the Kashtir valley are trigger happy and have no compunctions about killing the local inhabitants whom they consider hostile. Dr. Vincent showed numerous slides documentary wounds and injuries suffered due to torture and of women who had been raped, old men whose sons had been brutally killed and of young children whose parents had been annihilated. A young boy shot in the neck, a little girl with her arm smashed an old man with his head battered and a young man just brought to the hospital with his intestines protruding from the stomach after being shot by the police. These were some of the gruesome pictures, the sight of which gave the audience an impression of the enormity of the crimes inflicted upon a population which India calls its own.
The Kashmiris, Dr. Vincent said Support opposition to Indian forces because of an affinity for their Muslim brethren in Pakistan. They seek an independent country; the security forces consider every Kashmiri a collaborator. The week that Dr. Vincent and other members of the team spent in Kashmir gave them a first hand look at the war which India is waging against the Kashmiris and documented evidence of the deception which the World’s so-called large democracy practicing on the world Community.
Summing up his report, Dr.Vincent said, “In one week, we witnessed a gruesome tragedy of defenseless people victimized by an oppressive state to drown their voice for freedom.” He said what is happening in Kashmir is also happening in Punjab. There 100, the methods adopted by the secutity forces are the same and the fate of the Sikhs is similar to the Kashmiris, The PUHR report. On Punjab is expected to be ready in two months when it will be released.
Violence against Women Knishanti Dharmraj of Amnesty International spoke about the violence against women, which she said was a world phenomenon and needed to be tackled by every nation. Augmenting her point, Amarpal Dhaliwal said men sought to think of women as their property and politicalized rape to suit their disputes whether it was in Kashmir, Punjab or Bosnia, Rape, was a form of violence against women and any form of violence against women should be considered a violation of human ‘rights. Inderpal Kaur Grewal painted a lucid picture « of women, all over the World being exploited and violence against them being politicalized to suit a male dominated society. She spoke of the new power structures that demanded examination; Politicians in India have manipulated religion to solidify power over the \electorate. Religious institutions get manipulated and emotions aroused 10 gains or consolidate power. She said stereotyping characteristics of people whether male or female hurts society. Cleverly the Indian press painted K.P.S.Gill a Government imposed Jat Sikh used to suppress the rebellions and violent Jats of Punjab. Thus painting the Jat Sikhs to be a violent community.
The discussion was moderated by Reminder Singh Gill. There was a larger audience consisting of Kashmiris, Sikhs and staff of the University as well as human rights activists. An interesting question answer followed the discussion, during which some members of the audience suggested that Aid to India should be linked to its human rights record.
The chief organizer of the event was P.S.Atwal, Satjit Kaur, Jagdeep Singh Chima, Kamaljit Singh, Pallavi Sharma and Randeep Kaur Shergill.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 28, 1993
