Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Indian Foreign Minister, Mr. Bali Ram Bhagat said in the Parliament the other day that U.N. Forces should be posted in Sri Lanka to prevent the massacre of Tamils by the government troops?
Ambassador : That’s right. Journalist: Sri Lanka on the other hand maintains that there was no discrimination against Tamil minority and accuses India of training and arming the rebels to break Sri Lanka?
Ambassador : Very correct.
Journalist : Don’t you think Bali Ram Bhagat’s government is treating Sikhs and Muslim in the same manner as Sri Lanka is treating the Tamils? It is not equally important to station U.N. Forces in Punjab to prevent the extermination of Sikh youths by the paramilitary troops? Ambassador : Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist : Mr. Ambassador, Punjab’s new Director General of Police, Mr. Julius F. Rebiero, has threatened that the police will henceforth use bullet for bullet to control violence in the State? Ambassador : That’s right.
Journalist: He also said that the police will prepare a hit-list of Sikh the style and fashion of the gunmen operating in?
Ambassador : Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think Mr. Rebiero’s threat is an open rejection of the due process of law? Is it not a clear proof of the State terrorism being practiced by the police? Does he not deserve to be prosecuted for subverting the State machinery responsible for law and order? Ambassador : Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist : Mr. Ambassador, Libya is reportedly recruiting Indian Muslims to fight against the Americans?
Ambassador : That’s right.
Journalist : Libyan Ambassador, however, says that they were Recruiting laborers and not mercenaries for the army?
Ambassador : Very correct.
Journalist: Do you think India is deliberately permitting recruitment of Muslims to get rid of them? Does the Indian government not know that $800 a month is paid to mercenaries and not to laborers? Is it not indicative of Indo-Soviet collaboration against America?
Ambassador : Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 18, 1986
