Currently there are more than 200 Sikhs who are held by the INS in Bakersfield and San Pedro county jails. They are detained for six months to a year while they await a hearing on their refugee status. Presently 150 have been ordered deported to India. Because many arrived without a valid passport (which led to their arrest without bond in the first place) India also doesn’t want them. If deported, they are labeled “Khalistanis” and sent to Tihar jail in New Delhi where further reprisals and possibly death awaits them. “Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free…” says the plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, the symbol recognized world wide as representative of a freedom loving people, And our Bill of Rights is emulated by struggling democracies and decried by tyrants and despotic third world rulers, But perhaps, we should not be so quick to judge, for in our own country, and California in particular, the rights of those seeking political asylum are being denied daily. It is ironic and unfortunate that after suffering such hardships at home that political refugees come to the U.S. and face discrimination and deportation.
The state sponsored repression in the Punjab is well know to our readers. For years the Indian govt. has orchestrated reprisals against the Sikh population there. Since Operation Blue Star the order of the day has been to break the spirit of Punjabis thru torture, rape and deaths in faked encounters. Refusing to succumb to this oppression many have become refugees. Seeking asylum in the west, especially the U.S. they are jailed upon arrival. Held without bond, they are refused refugee status even though Amnesty Int. Asia Watch, THRO and recently the U.S. Congress has recognized profound human rights violations against minorities in India, especially Punjabi Sikhs.
Recently W.S.N. was contacted by some of the inmates held at jails in Bakersfield and San Pedro who told our reporters of their distress since arriving in California,
One such case is that of 27-yrold Daniel Masih. A Christian from Jallander, he was an activist in the Akali Dal (Christian) party and past president of the party cell in district Jallander. In 1986 the police started a period of harassment, trying to show that the party was subversive and was being funded by foreigners. Masihs good friend,
Mr. Billu was picked up and tortured to get him to reveal the so called foreign links. When torture didn’t work Billu was burned to death.
Daniel Masih was the unfortunate eyewitness, He was then arrested and Police Inspector Vijay Kumar subjected him to torture hanging him upside down for long periods of time in an attempt to get him to reveal the fearsome foreign links.” Later, D.S.P. Kuldeep Singh took over. He tied Masihs hands to a pipe vise that was lightened with every question until finally the hand was cut off. His left leg was also broken at this time and he spent several months in the hospital recuperating. Upon release he was arrested and spent four years in Jodhpur jail. Rearrested by D.S.P. Baldev Sharma he was put in a torture cell while plans to kill him in a fake encounter were being made. But, one night while the cops indulged in heavy drinking, he made his escape from the jail and with help made his way to the U.S.
Two young men in San Pedro tell a similar tale, They are denied the right to follow their religion. They are not allowed to wear their turbans nor are they allowed to wear a scarf or other head covering. They cannot follow their vegetarian diet. They are frequently disturbed during path (prayers), Upon seeking medical assistance one is awakened at 4 a.m. and held in a barren cell for three or more hours until they can be seen. They have been kept naked for long periods while guards conduct unreasonable searches.
Karnail Singh and Surjeet Singh feel that they have traded one form of state repression for another. They don’t understand how their torture scarred bodies fail to convince judges of their sincerity. Nor do they understand why their appeal to the Sikh community seems to fall on deaf ears. These people are not criminals, nor should they be treated as such. It behaves the sympathetic and generous Sikh community to come to their aid. No one from a local Gurdwara, the management committee or Sikh community organization has visited or shown an interest in their plight. They have paid attorneys for assistance who refuse to accept their phone calls or work actively on their cases.
A team of lawyers, a group of visitors, a letter of encouragement are just a few of the ideas the prisoners mentioned that would be helpful. Furthermore, a letter to ones congressman and assembly representative could draw attention to these political refugees, If you would like to help, contact W.S.N. for further information on how you can reach and assist these forgotten souls whose only crime was their search for freedom and failure to deal with I.N.S. bureaucracy.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1992
