Dear Editor:
Week after week you have been publishing pictures and accounts of torture and physical and mental abuse of prisoners in Punjab. These are human rights abuses of the worst kind. Now you write that political detainees lodged in high security jails have the privilege of sending out Press Releases to the newspapers! Newspapers are actual printing these communications. This indeed is progress! Why is your headline not screaming of the great democratic reforms in the Amritsar Jail? That surely would be of great interest in your readers. Imagine replacing torture with freedom of expression in the printed press.
You say “Jasbir Singh asked Svend Robinson as to why he was in such a hurry to go back without meeting any detainees or visiting any jails.” I ask Jot do political detainees now get news from outside on a daily basis ? Do they have radios and T.V.s? How then did he get to speak to them? Did the government of India send a limousine to take him to his appointment?
I have checked. Svend Robinson did not see people individually. The three MPs met people jointly and noon are recalls any Jasbir Singh. If such a person exists perhaps you could find out if his statements were made voluntarily or as a result of torture.
Items appearing in the Indian Press should never be taken-at face value. This should have been verified. You could have contacted us. You knew we were the sponsors of this trip. We will talk with you anytime.
Think about it! And print a retraction
Alice Basarke
Executive Assistant
W.S.O. Canada
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992
