Rally/march For Remembrance, Justice And Freedom

[S.S.F]

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Taksali Singh]

I GETIN MY INDIA FLAG READY 2 BURN

153293[/snapback]

I think that's the approach we want to leave behind...

For so many years we have been "burning flags, shouting naaray, kicking indira gandhi effigies etc etc"

Instead of doing more harm than good by taking part in the above, lets try a different approach.

Lets take a more pro-active approach and think about ways of remembering shaheeds not remembering india. Why should we waste our time burning flags, would the shaheeds of '84 be proud of our generation, if they saw us doing such deeds?

Think about it...

Maybe I'm way off, but i think i speak for the vast majority who think rallies are a waste of time.

They're not a waste of time, but in fact a huge opportunity to show the world how hurt and upset we are at the fact that Sikhs have been mis-treated for 22 years!

wjkkwjkp!

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Rally and March for Remembrance, Justice and Freedom

Sunday 4th June 2006

This year the annual remembrance rally and march to mark the 22nd anniversary of the 1984 Indian army assault on the Golden Temple complex will be taking place in London on Sunday 4 June 2006.

Gurdwaras and Sikh organisations have been requested on radio broadcasts earlier this week to make appropriate transport arrangements to enable the Sangat to attend in large numbers.  For the first time ever coaches are expected to travel from mainland Europe - France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy etc. 

Five large remembrance events are in the process of being planned to take place simultaneously on Sunday 4 June in London, Toronto, Vancouver, (Bay Area) San Francisco and New York or Washington DC.  The Sikh Federation (UK) has urged the Canadian Organisation of Sikh Students (COSS) to take the lead in organising the two events in Canada and is in contact with Panthic organisations in Canada and the USA.

Three other remembrance events are being discussed for Germany (for Sikhs unable to travel from mainland Europe to London), Australia and Malaysia.  Sikhs in Panjab are also being encouraged to organise large-scale events that will complement what is being planned by the Sikh Diaspora for Sunday 4 June.  Our aim is to unite to remind people across the world that SIKHS WILL NEVER FORGET 1984.

The event in London will commence in Hyde Park (11:30am-1:30pm), followed by a march through central London to Trafalgar Square (1:30-2:30pm).  The event will conclude with a massive rally in Trafalgar Square (2:30-4:30pm), where a large number of non-Sikhs will also participate.  The plans for Trafalgar Square follow the highly successful 'Sikhs in the Square' event in November 2005 organised by Young Sikhs (UK).

The organisers have pledged to encourage Young Sikhs to play a central role in making the rally and march for remembrance, justice and freedom a huge success.  Sikhs across the UK are urged to make early preparations for the 4 June 2006.

Gurjeet Singh

National Press Secretary

Sikh Federation (UK)

Notes

1. Preparations by Sikhs in the UK for 4 June 2006

Sikhs across the UK are urged to make early preparations for 4 June 2006.  As the organisers wish to disseminate information and share ideas quickly across the UK we are urging Sikhs, in particular young Sikhs, to email their contact details, name, telephone, postal address and email to sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk by 28 February 2006.  This should help to ensure a good turnout on the day, maximum coverage by the local media (newspapers and radio) from a local perspective, distribution of publicity material, co-ordinate the preparation of banners/placards etc., proper stewarding and organisation on the day, share ideas on encouraging more non-Sikhs to take part and help set 'programmes' in advance for the rally in Hyde Park (mainly in Panjabi) and the rally in Trafalgar Square (mainly in English). 

2. Volunteers for project teams for 4 June London remembrance event

It is likely that there will be around a dozen project teams for different aspects of the 4 June event where the organisers are looking for volunteers.  Project teams are likely to cover 1) funding and sponsorship, 2) logistics for the day, 3) media and public relations, 4) advertising and publicity, 5) stewarding and security, 6) liaison with the authorities (Metropolitan Police, Hyde Park, insurance company, Greater London Authority, Westminster Council etc.), 7) production and distribution of merchandise, 8) production and display of multi-media material, 9) liaison with speakers (including non-Sikh speakers), 10) attendance of non-Sikh groups and the general public, 11) co-ordination with organisers of similar events in other countries, 12) liaison and arrangements for Sikhs from mainland Europe.  Volunteers should email their contact details, name, telephone, postal address and email to sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk by 28 February 2006 and indicate which project team(s) they wish to join.

3. Sikhs planning to travel to the London rally from mainland Europe

Sikhs planning to travel to the London rally from different countries in mainland Europe are urged to contact the Sikh Federation (UK) so arrangements can be made for them to travel to the UK on Saturday 3 June and for them to be accommodated at Gurdwaras and with the Sangat in the South of England. 

4. Gurdwaras / Sangat volunteering to accommodate Sikhs from mainland Europe

Gurdwaras / Sangat in the South of England who wish to volunteer to accommodate Sikhs from mainland Europe who will be travelling to the UK on Saturday 3 June are also urged to contact the organisers so provisional arrangements can be made.  A special appeal is made to Gurdwaras in the South of England (Barking, Dartford, East Ham, Erith, Gravesend, Hounslow, Ilford, Slough, Southall, Woolwich etc.) to volunteer for this sewa.

5. Sikhs planning remembrance events in other countries

We estimate there will be ten large remembrance events taking place simultaneously on Sunday 4 June 2006 across the globe.  Those planning these events in countries other than the UK or those wishing to volunteer for the non-UK event are urged to closely liaise with the organisers for the London event and email their contact details, name, telephone, postal address and email to sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk by 28 February 2006.

151340[/snapback]

VOLUNTEERS PLEASE!

152589[/snapback]

Deadline for volunteers for the central London rally and march is 28 February 2006. Please email sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk

The overall project plan will then be developed and each project team will be tasked with taking forward the relevant part of the project.

[Taksali Singh]

BUMPPPP!!!!

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

BUMPPPP!!!!

154255[/snapback]

CAMPAIGN 84 PROJECT TEAM

being put in place

It is not too late to volunteer.

Each of the 15 elements of the 'June' project will have a mini-project team.

Later volunteers will be needed from towns and cities across the UK.

Please email sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk if you wish to take on some sewa.

[S.S.F]

BUMP

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Just came across this on the web.

Let's try and make the Rally and March for Reembrance, Justice and Freedom on Sunday 4 June a huge success.

A Forgotten Genocide - Report on ‘Sikhs in the Square’

-----------------------------------------

Ravender Singh Sembhy

-----------------------------------------

As I walked through the London streets towards Trafalgar Square I asked myself, could it happen here? ‘A bloodthirsty mob, almost like a pack of hungry wolves hunting for prey, went from coach to coach in search of Sikhs. In a frenzy of madness the mob, armed with iron rods and knives, brutally dragged out Sikhs, burnt their turbans, hacked them to death and threw them across the tracks'. In just a few days, over 10,000 Sikhs lay slain in cities all over India . While the most renowned genocide of the last century is undoubtedly the mass murder of over six million Jews under the Nazis, other genocides often shamelessly pass us by. The systematic murder of 250,000 Sikhs in India in 1984 is one such genocide.

On Sunday 6 November 2005 Sikhs from across the UK gathered at Trafalgar Square in London to commemorate the persecution of their brethren over the past twenty-one years in India . The event, ‘ Sikhs in the Square' , began by airing an hour-long documentary on a giant television screen highlighting the plight of Sikhs in India . Later in the day guest speakers, including Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and various representatives from human rights organisations, voiced their support for the Sikh people. The aim of the event, organised by the Sikh Federation, was to raise awareness of a genocide that has received scarce press coverage in the Western media, despite the fact that a Sikh diaspora has been present in the UK and the US for over a hundred years now. But what exactly were Sikhs commemorating, and what are the origins of this forgotten genocide?

While India prides itself on being ‘the world's largest democracy', for Sikhs, it has come to symbolise something else entirely. The history of the Sikhs in India since its inception in 1947 has been one of persecution, discrimination and dispossession. When the British finally withdrew in 1947, they didn't leave the sub-continent as they found it, instead : the Muslims, under their unlikely leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah, petitioned for and achieved the Muslim State of Pakistan ; and the Congress Party took charge of a Hindu majority India .

But what did the Sikhs get? Nothing. In fact, they got worse than nothing: their former Kingdom and ancestral homeland Panjab, which they had ruled prior to the British arrival from 1799 to 1849, was split in two, with two thirds of it going to Pakistan . They decided to throw in their lot with India , and after being promised ‘the glow of freedom' by numerous Indian leaders including Gandhi, migrated to Indian East Punjab . Since 1947, however, rather than experiencing the ‘glow of freedom', the Sikh community has faced a continuous string of both civil and human rights violations.

Immediately after partition Indian officials not only went back on their promises, but some even went so far as to describe the Sikhs as ‘criminal people' and instructed officials to take out ‘special measures' against them. Over the next fifty-eight years these ‘special measures' against the Sikhs have included widespread abuses by police and army personnel, no official recognition of their faith in the Indian Constitution, the diversion of 75% of Panjab's natural water supplies - crucial to Sikh farmers - to neighbouring states, and the arbitrary murder of Sikh civil and human rights protesters. Enough was enough.

As a result of these continual depredations a group of young Sikh radicals, headed by the charismatic preacher Sant Jarnail Singh, openly called for an independent Sikh State (Khalistan) within the boundaries of historic Panjab, and encamped themselves inside Sikhism's holiest shrine, The Golden Temple in Amritsar. In June 1984, under the command of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 150,000 troops were deployed in Panjab and the Golden Temple was stormed in an attempt to crush the freedom movement. Not only were several of the main buildings in the Temple, which are sacred to Sikhs, reduced to rubble by the Indian army, but ten thousand Sikh pilgrims ‘disappeared' – executed, their only crime was their faith. Amrit Wilson of the New Statesman wrote in June 1984 of the Golden Temple storming: “On 4 June, a day of pilgrimage for Sikhs when thousands had gathered at the Golden Temple , army tanks moved into the Temple Complex , smashing into the sanctum and shooting everyone in sight. Those left alive were then prevented from leaving the building, many were wounded but left to bleed to death, and when they begged for water, Army Jawans [soldiers] told them to drink the mixture of blood and urine on the floor.”

In retaliation for this sacrilege and blatant human rights violation, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. What happened afterwards exceeded even the Temple massacre: a wave of government organised pogroms, systematically singled out Sikhs in Indian cities and butchered them in their thousands. The BBC's Nicholas Nugent gave his account of the pogrom in Delhi ; “The initial ‘knee-<admin-profanity filter activated>' response had given way to what appeared to be a more systematic and organised outbreak of blood-letting. Sikhs were stabbed, burned and butchered to death.” As the police and army stood by and watched, it was clear that the government was involved in organising the crackdown. To this day not a single person has been brought to account for the genocide. In fact, in the last 21 years the Indian government has continued the indiscriminate murder of innocent Sikh civilians, under the guise of protecting national security from Sikh secessionists. A rough estimate of the number of Sikhs killed is 250,000.

Since the atrocities of 1984 Sikhs have continued to petition for autonomy and for the guilty to be brought to book. Those who gathered in Trafalgar Square on 6 November 2005 ended the day's proceedings with a candle lit vigil and a prayer to commemorate their lost loved-ones. On a dismally wet and sombre Sunday afternoon, perhaps the appropriate mood for such an event, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes offered these words of support to the Sikh people: “Your cause is right and just; the Indian government must be held accountable for their actions and I call upon you to continue your fight for truth and justice.”

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Just came across this on the web. 

Let's try and make the Rally and March for Reembrance, Justice and Freedom on Sunday 4 June a huge success.

A Forgotten Genocide - Report on ‘Sikhs in the Square’

-----------------------------------------

Ravender Singh Sembhy

-----------------------------------------

As I walked through the London streets towards Trafalgar Square I asked myself, could it happen here? ‘A bloodthirsty mob, almost like a pack of hungry wolves hunting for prey, went from coach to coach in search of Sikhs. In a frenzy of madness the mob, armed with iron rods and knives, brutally dragged out Sikhs, burnt their turbans, hacked them to death and threw them across the tracks'. In just a few days, over 10,000 Sikhs lay slain in cities all over India . While the most renowned genocide of the last century is undoubtedly the mass murder of over six million Jews under the Nazis, other genocides often shamelessly pass us by. The systematic murder of 250,000 Sikhs in India in 1984 is one such genocide.

On Sunday 6 November 2005 Sikhs from across the UK gathered at Trafalgar Square in London to commemorate the persecution of their brethren over the past twenty-one years in India . The event, ‘ Sikhs in the Square' , began by airing an hour-long documentary on a giant television screen highlighting the plight of Sikhs in India . Later in the day guest speakers, including Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and various representatives from human rights organisations, voiced their support for the Sikh people. The aim of the event, organised by the Sikh Federation, was to raise awareness of a genocide that has received scarce press coverage in the Western media, despite the fact that a Sikh diaspora has been present in the UK and the US for over a hundred years now. But what exactly were Sikhs commemorating, and what are the origins of this forgotten genocide?

While India prides itself on being ‘the world's largest democracy', for Sikhs, it has come to symbolise something else entirely. The history of the Sikhs in India since its inception in 1947 has been one of persecution, discrimination and dispossession. When the British finally withdrew in 1947, they didn't leave the sub-continent as they found it, instead : the Muslims, under their unlikely leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah, petitioned for and achieved the Muslim State of Pakistan ; and the Congress Party took charge of a Hindu majority India .

But what did the Sikhs get? Nothing. In fact, they got worse than nothing: their former Kingdom and ancestral homeland Panjab, which they had ruled prior to the British arrival from 1799 to 1849, was split in two, with two thirds of it going to Pakistan . They decided to throw in their lot with India , and after being promised ‘the glow of freedom' by numerous Indian leaders including Gandhi, migrated to Indian East Punjab . Since 1947, however, rather than experiencing the ‘glow of freedom', the Sikh community has faced a continuous string of both civil and human rights violations.

Immediately after partition Indian officials not only went back on their promises, but some even went so far as to describe the Sikhs as ‘criminal people' and instructed officials to take out ‘special measures' against them. Over the next fifty-eight years these ‘special measures' against the Sikhs have included widespread abuses by police and army personnel, no official recognition of their faith in the Indian Constitution, the diversion of 75% of Panjab's natural water supplies - crucial to Sikh farmers - to neighbouring states, and the arbitrary murder of Sikh civil and human rights protesters. Enough was enough.

As a result of these continual depredations a group of young Sikh radicals, headed by the charismatic preacher Sant Jarnail Singh, openly called for an independent Sikh State (Khalistan) within the boundaries of historic Panjab, and encamped themselves inside Sikhism's holiest shrine, The Golden Temple in Amritsar. In June 1984, under the command of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 150,000 troops were deployed in Panjab and the Golden Temple was stormed in an attempt to crush the freedom movement. Not only were several of the main buildings in the Temple, which are sacred to Sikhs, reduced to rubble by the Indian army, but ten thousand Sikh pilgrims ‘disappeared' – executed, their only crime was their faith. Amrit Wilson of the New Statesman wrote in June 1984 of the Golden Temple storming: “On 4 June, a day of pilgrimage for Sikhs when thousands had gathered at the Golden Temple , army tanks moved into the Temple Complex , smashing into the sanctum and shooting everyone in sight. Those left alive were then prevented from leaving the building, many were wounded but left to bleed to death, and when they begged for water, Army Jawans [soldiers] told them to drink the mixture of blood and urine on the floor.”

In retaliation for this sacrilege and blatant human rights violation, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. What happened afterwards exceeded even the Temple massacre: a wave of government organised pogroms, systematically singled out Sikhs in Indian cities and butchered them in their thousands. The BBC's Nicholas Nugent gave his account of the pogrom in Delhi ; “The initial ‘knee-<admin-profanity filter activated>' response had given way to what appeared to be a more systematic and organised outbreak of blood-letting. Sikhs were stabbed, burned and butchered to death.” As the police and army stood by and watched, it was clear that the government was involved in organising the crackdown. To this day not a single person has been brought to account for the genocide. In fact, in the last 21 years the Indian government has continued the indiscriminate murder of innocent Sikh civilians, under the guise of protecting national security from Sikh secessionists. A rough estimate of the number of Sikhs killed is 250,000.

Since the atrocities of 1984 Sikhs have continued to petition for autonomy and for the guilty to be brought to book. Those who gathered in Trafalgar Square on 6 November 2005 ended the day's proceedings with a candle lit vigil and a prayer to commemorate their lost loved-ones. On a dismally wet and sombre Sunday afternoon, perhaps the appropriate mood for such an event, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes offered these words of support to the Sikh people: “Your cause is right and just; the Indian government must be held accountable for their actions and I call upon you to continue your fight for truth and justice.”

155918[/snapback]

Link for this as follows:

http://www.se7enmagazine.org/culture/culture_04.htm

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

BUMPPPP!!!!

154255[/snapback]

CAMPAIGN 84 PROJECT TEAM

being put in place

It is not too late to volunteer.

Each of the 15 elements of the 'June' project will have a mini-project team.

Later volunteers will be needed from towns and cities across the UK.

Please email sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk if you wish to take on some sewa.

154810[/snapback]

Project teams are just about to start work . . not too late to volunteer!

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

BUMPPPP!!!!

154255[/snapback]

CAMPAIGN 84 PROJECT TEAM

being put in place

It is not too late to volunteer.

Each of the 15 elements of the 'June' project will have a mini-project team.

Later volunteers will be needed from towns and cities across the UK.

Please email sikhfederationuk@yahoo.co.uk if you wish to take on some sewa.

154810[/snapback]

Project teams are just about to start work . . not too late to volunteer!

157026[/snapback]

Get ready for many posts on this with less than just under 10 weeks left . . .