Sikhs Demand International Action

[sukhraj kaur]

SIKH FEDERATION (UK)

PRESS RELEASE

Friday 12 August 2005

SIKHS DEMAND INTERNATIONAL ACTION TO DEAL WITH 21 YEARS OF INDIAN INJUSTICE AND SHAME

The Sikh Federation (UK) has to date been silent about the hot air following the release of the Nanavati Commission report earlier this week and the reaction of political opportunists in India. The contents of the report and the inevitable delay in the report being made public came as no surprise. The whitewash and clean chit it has provided for the Congress leadership simply reinforces our firmly held view that Sikhs will never get justice in India.

If India was a democratic country with respect for human rights and the right to life, the anti-Sikh pogroms would never have been allowed to take place. If the rule of law existed and prevailed Sikhs would have been protected and received some form of justice many years ago. Independent civil liberty groups identified and named the main perpetrators and instigators in reports produced within weeks of the massacres. However, successive governments, commissions and investigations have come and gone in the last 21 years with no action to provide justice to the tens of thousands of victims of the anti-Sikh pogroms. The little hope that victims had that Manmohan Singh's government may prosecute politicians and officials that have been implicated has been totally shattered in the last 72 hours.

In the last few days some of those implicated, such as, Jagdish Tytler has been forced to resign from the Cabinet and Sajjan Kumar has stepped down as Chairman of the Delhi Rural Development Board. Much is also being written about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's public apology. However, Manmohan Singh has been Prime Minister for well over a year and yet it has taken the publication of the Nanavati Commission report and political opposition for him to realise the shame associated with the events of November 1984 and the need for him to apologise. The apology by Manmohan Singh has more to do with saving political face than a genuine desire to ensure all instigators are prosecuted. Resignations and apologies will soon be forgotten. The events of the last few days have done nothing, but fuel the complete alienation of Sikhs within India.

On the 20th anniversary of the anti-Sikh pogroms British Sikhs launched a report in the UK Parliament titled: "Twenty years on - A call for action". The report recommended the following measures be taken by the international community:

A UN investigation should be set up to investigate the persistent failure of successive Indian Governments to ensure the prosecution of those alleged to be responsible for to the killings and destruction. That UN initiative should require the Indian authorities to:

- Take action against those responsible including proportionate criminal sanctions

- Ensure that the victims (or their families) are adequately compensated and provided for

Appropriate sanctions (trade and diplomatic) should be applied, both by the UN and by individual states, in case of default by the Indian authorities in relation to these UN requirements.

All Governments should ensure that those reportedly responsible for these gross human rights violations are denied entry to their respective States until such time they have been subjected to the due processes of investigation and criminal proceedings. Failure to do this will encourage a sense of impunity for the perpetrators. If any such persons are found to have entered the territory of any State, consideration should be given to prosecuting those persons under applicable local and international law.

Threats of violence and intimidation against those championing the rights of the victims and their families and seeking prosecution of the guilty should be roundly condemned. The international community must require India to secure the safety of human rights defenders so that justice can be done.

These recommendations are even more relevant today as Sikhs who are peacefully protesting in India about the lack of action following the Nanavati Commission report are being manhandled and injured in Delhi with the use of water cannon by police. This is the same police that stood by 21 years ago as Government supported gangs and mobs burned thousands of Sikh’s alive, Sikh homes were destroyed, Sikh women were raped, and Gurdwara Sahibs and sacred scriptures of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji were burned. All this went on not just under the watchful eyes, but with the full blessing of some of the highest seats in Indian authority.

For over two decades high-ranking members of the Congress party have continued to enjoy political impunity for this violence. For every day, and every year which passes without convictions, injustice is still being served to the broken, shattered homes of Sikhs. This is strengthening the resolve of Sikhs across the world to lobby the international community to not only take action against India and the culprits, but to campaign for the establishment of an independent sovereign Sikh State.

Gurjeet Singh

National Press Secretary

Sikh Federation (UK)