The Shiromani Akali Dal, the leading political party of the Sikh nation welcomes you on your maiden visit to the Panjab, We attach great significance to your visit, Punjab’s contemporary history has not included a UN official’s visit to seek an understanding in the agonies and aspirations of the people, The Shiromani Akali Dal infers that your present visit to ascertain the present ground situation in Punjab and to gain a clearer personal insight in to the extensive human rights abuses of the Sikhs in the last 15 years at the hands of the Indian State. We view your sojourn to Kashmir and Punjab as the first in a series of long overdue steps required by the United ‘Nations.
As you have been appointed as an ombudsman to monitor the respect and abuse of human rights in member states, we are desirous that you spend more time investigating the intarsias of India’s abysmal human rights record; The UN Commission on Human Rights in particular should be intervening and interceding on behalf of beleaguered peoples of repressive India. No country, with the ‘ostensible reason to preserve its territorial sovereignty and integrity, has the right to commit genocide of minority peoples forced to live within its borders. Self-determination and safeguards as defined by international humanitarian laws should be ensured to peoples by the UN. The right to self-determination encompasses all fundamental human rights freedoms.
We attempted to submit a Memorandum personally to the UN Secretary General. Dr. Boutros Ghali during his visit to New Delhi on April 22, 1992. The Indian government imprisoned the Sikh leadership, hence forbade us to meet with Dr. Ghali. Consequently, we forwarded a copy through the UN representative in New Delhi. In June, 1992, the document was deposited personally at the UN office in New York. Since then, on July 23, 1993 through Michael Van Walt Van Praag of the UNPO.
We forwarded still another Memorandum. However, it is regrettable that response from Dr. Ghali’s offices to ‘our correspondence has not been received. For your benefit we attach with this memorandum copies of these two documents. The Shiromani Akali Dal reiterates that self-determination to the Sikh people will stop their genocide and enable the people to determine their political status.
As you can determine, the memorandum to Dr, Ghali has been signed by representative Sikh leaders, namely Simranjit Singh Mann, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Inderpal Singh Khalsa, Sukhbir Singh Khalsa, Harcharan Singh, Rajinder Singh Mongaall seeking an independent and sovereign Sikh state, Khalistan, This aspiration has not changed. Since gaining independence in 1947, force Hindu India’s has never sincerely striven to safeguard our rights as asui generalization of people. Our only recourse is to strive peacefully for a separate Sikh homeland, It is incumbent upon the United Nations to ensure our rights, With the last 15 years of tragic wide scale human rights abuses: murder, rape, extern and glaring acts of State sponsored genocide, we figure we owe it to ourselves to survive by opting out of India before we are entirely colonized and/or eradicated. The UN Declaration of Decolonization read with Article 1 of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights gives the Sikhs some legally tenable basis for self-presser pees Senior Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann, who has been advocating the cause of Sikh independence through peaceful and nonviolent means, has been imprisoned in Patiala Central District Jail for the last five months. Similarly, he spent some five months in the same prison last year. A four page Factsheet detailing his history of arbitrary detention and arrest was enclosed with this memorandum. We are also submitting a detailed multiage report pertaining to his current detention. As evidence of the UN’s genuine concern for respect of human rights, our party cadre expects that your good self may deem it proper, Prior to your departure from India, to visit Simranjit Singh Mann in Patiala District Central Jail. In the same way you deviated from the Indian government prepared protocol in Kashmir and met the Hurriyat conference leaders, we will appreciate if you initiate similar maneuvering with respect to meeting Mr. Mann. Although we understand that the UN ‘Commission for Human Rights hasn’t given you specific written mandate, it is well within your purview and objectives to publish reports as a result of your field investigations. India exhibits strong banana republic tendencies. We urge you that your visit to Kashmir and the Panjab should be followed summarily by a report or a further detailed fact-finding team’s visit. We fear that if this does not happen, the Indian state and its nationalist media supporters will have succeeded once again in exploiting the powerlessness of the UN and its bodies. We request you and your offices to be cognizant of effective media management when dealing with perfidious India. Without some coupe sons like yourself, India will continue (o bully its neighbors and subjects, applying its own interpretation of democracy. Therefore we urge you to submit a detailed report and widespread news coverage of your visit here as soon as possible. Otherwise the impact of your visit will be exploited adversely against those you wish to protect or give succor.
The Sikhs, Kashmiris and other nationalities of the subcontinent are seriously concerned about the repeated denial by the government of India to official delegations of the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special rapporteur on Extrajudicial killings and the International Committee of the Red Cross. India has categorically refused to undertake Human Rights Training Services at the UN Human Rights Center. Only a few months ago, in December, 1994, a visiting Belgian parliamentary delegation was denied permission to visit Punjab. In an unprecedented last-minute step, visas that had been issued by India’s Belgian Embassy were cancelled.
We request you to prepare a tally of the official responses of India to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial executions, India even refuses to file responses to the UN Human Rights Committee to show its compliance of the provisions of the UN Covenant on Civil And Political Rights, 1966. Its first report was submitted in 1984.
The second report, due in 1985 was submitted in July 1989 after seven reminders; the third report due on July 1990 had not been submitted till March 1993. India created another organization to assuage international outcry of its appalling human rights record. This one, the Indian National Human Rights Commission, was created in 1993. India’s National Human Rights Commission has an overwhelmingly vast agenda before itself, very little machinery, staff and financial resources to cope with the prodigious number of complaints being made, Hence, this nascent body is anticipated to result in being still another ineffective Indian government organization. In summary, we urge that your good offices pressurize India to: 1, Create free access for the above named international organizations to make comprehensive investigations into, Panjab, Kashmir and the North cast. 2. Sign the 1966 Optional Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, 3. Ensure peace in South Asia through signature of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, 4, Withdraw all anti people laws such as TADA, and the National Security Act. Professor Rosalyn Higgins of the UK (UNHRO), in the course of the Committee in March 1991 stated” still seek clarification as to why there has been no notification of the derogation (of the TADA and the NSA) and the only answer I began to hear (from the Auorney General) was the
insistence that it did not apply throughout the country. But even if these measures are applied only in regions they are still derogations of rights under the Covenant and would require notification to us. And that I think this is a problem for us.”
- To release detained Sikh leader, Simranjit Singh Mann. The right to self-determination of the Sikhs must be guaranteed. We resolved to achieve this right in 1992, We presented a Memorandum to this effect to the then Prime Minister of India, Chandra Shekhar on December 28, 1990, Then we presented our case to the UN Secretary General. We lobbied and petitioned various international forums; and while we were doing all tl found Sikhs around us disappearing by the dozens each day. The conscience keepers of the world, the UN stood a silent spectator, almost an impassive accomplice in these crimes against humanity. The deadly silence, facade and immunity of nation-states’ territorial sovereignty needs to be broken soon! If not, people will continue to die Somalia, Bosnia, Croati Chechnea, Fast Timor, Sri Lanka, the Northeastern states of Indian.
Kashmir and Punjab. Unenforceable laws and conventions will have to be replaced by effective mechanisms of redressed snorts and succor. Otherwise there will be worldwide escalation of these conflicts and massive scale problems.
We request that in future visits your itinerary be finalized by the UN Information office in Delhi and not by the concerned Indian State officials the same officials and agencies against. Whom we would wish to depose for indictment. Your conversations with our local civil liberties organizations would clarify that the Sikhs have ample evidence to bring before the new UN War Crimes Tribunal, dozens of criminals who have committed crimes against human if indeed crimes against Sikhs, in acts of state sponsored genocide. We would like your office to develop an ongoing relationship to coordinate such’ an evolution. We hope that as the first ever UN Human Rights Commissioner you will initiate steps and stew proactive precedents for a progressive and peaceful South Asia.
Prof. Jagmohan Singh, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, imarjit Singh Sekhon, Bhai Ram Singh
Article extracted from this publication >> June 2, 1995
