Candle Light Remembrance Vigil in UK

[s s Jhamka]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa

vaheguru ji ki fateh

dear sangat ji

just got this email, thought the UK sangat was asleep for the events for nov 84, glad to see something is being done with the Dhadi Darbar on the 30th oct and the sikhi week Sri Akhand Parth Sahib on the 12-14th Nov things seen to be planed out. please join in the rememberance for our sikh brothers and sistas. vist www.boss-uk.org for move events on nov 1984

may we one day bring to justice those evil ppl who killed and rapped so many sikhs. lets do Ardaas benti to Vaheguru to give us kirpa

akaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

******* P R E S S R E L E A S E *****

We have lost sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, we have seen them burned alive in front of our eyes. Do we not have the right to mourn? Do we not have the right to want justice?1

Candle Light Remembrance Vigil

3pm to 7 pm - 3 November 2004 - Victoria Square, Birmingham, UK

1pm to 6 pm - 11 November 2004 - Downing Street, London, UK

The Sikh community is commemorating the sacrifices of Sikh soldiers who fell in the first and second World Wars and the twentieth anniversary of the holocaust that was unleashed upon the Sikhs of Northern India during November 1984.

The sacrifice of thousands of Sikh libertarians goes unmentioned year on year. This year the Sikh community is remembering the courage of Sikh soldiers from the fields of Punjab, the jungles of Burma, the plains of Africa to the poppy fields of Europe. Wherever they serv

ed humanity, they fought tyranny, oppression and injustice.

The commemoration this year is marking twenty years of impunity since Operation Bluestar and pogroms of Sikhs in India during November 1984. In disgust that their counterparts in Northern India had overseen the genocide of Sikhs, Sikh soldiers deserted barracks across India. Thousands of these Sikh soldiers were killed, hundreds have languished in prisons since.

The vigil will officially launch a campaign to raise funds for the prosecution case that is being prepared by victims of the 1984 genocide against re-elected MPs and Congress (I) party officials serving on the current Indian administration. Ironically, one of the MPs has been given the brief of NRI’s (support and development of services for Non Resident Indians). The Minister has publicly threatened to eliminate the leading Human Rights lawyer representing widows and victims of the 1984 genocide.

Come and give your support for the campaign for justice in India and commemorate the sacrifice of Sikh soldiers.

Bring a candle.

Email ; sikhthetruth@yahoo.co.uk

Background : The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India

Twenty Years of Impunity: Truth and Justice Denied

On the morning of October 31 1984, the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards. The two bodyguards happened to be Sikhs avenging the assault on the Golden Temple complex that had been ordered by the Prime Minister five months earlier in the same year.

What followed begged belief. Gangs of assailants burned Sikhs alive, gang-raped Sikh women, and destroyed their Gurdwaras and properties, among other devastating crimes. The violence, allegedly motivated to of grief over Mrs. Gandhi's assassination, continued unabated for at least four days, and intermittently for the rest of the week.

Seni

or political party officials and police carefully orchestrated the Sikh massacre of November 1984. During the night of October 31, Congress (I) party officials met with their local support networks – people who participated in rallies and election drives – to: identify the residences and properties of Sikhs through government-issued voter or ration lists; distribute weapons, kerosene and incendiary chemicals; exhort non-Sikhs to kill Sikhs and loot and burn their properties; and plan the time of attack. That night, they floated the first rumour that Sikhs had celebrated the assassination of Indira Gandhi, dancing and distributing sweets, conditioning Indians for the violence to follow.

The next morning, on November 1 between 8 and 10 a.m., assailants simultaneously attacked Sikhs throughout the country, shouting slogans of extermination. The gangs often first attacked the Sikh Gurdwara in the particular neighborhood. After desecrating the Sikh scripture, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, by urinating on or burning them, burning down the Gurdwara, and attacking symbols of the Sikh faith, the mob attacked the properties of Sikhs and the Sikhs themselves. Organized transportation, sometimes provided using state-owned buses and railways, brought assailants to where Sikhs lived. The behavior of policemen surpassed inaction, and often, amounted to participation and instigation. If the Sikhs gathered and defended themselves, the police disarmed the Sikhs and sent them to their individual houses, making them easier targets for death squads. Congress (I) party leaders led, directed and encouraged gangs of assailants, and participated in the massacres themselves.

As the violence continued methodically and systematically over the next days, Congress (I) politicians and policemen spread two more false rumors: the Sikhs had poisoned the water supply and Sikhs in Punjab were killing Hindus on Delhi-bound trains. Government officials continued to deny the extent of violence against Sikhs, while police offic

ers and political leaders simultaneously directed the organised slaughtering of the Sikhs. The army, called into Delhi 48 hours after violence had begun, could not begin to effectively counter the violence until November 3 because of the Delhi administration's refusal to cooperate.

Thousands of Sikhs were massacred in the most barbaric method of burning. The Delhi pogrom has been documented by several organisations.

Twenty years on, the Indian Government has failed to set the record straight and account for the carnage of November 1984. Instead, it has suppressed and destroyed evidence. The government's main commission of inquiry – the Misra Commission, established in 1985 to examine this massacre – white-washed the massacre, concealing its papers and proceedings from the public. The government also attacked those reporting on the 1984 carnage, using the rhetoric of national security to criticize parts of the foreign media for ‘deliberately presenting totally distorted versions of the Punjab situation, which have the effect of encouraging and sustaining separatist activities.’2

The newly elected Congress (I) administration in 2004 has continued to sustain anti-Sikh feeling by awarding those responsible for crimes against Sikhs. In the recent elections two of the most senior Congress (I) officials implicated the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms were given tickets for safe seats by the Congress party. Jagdish Tytler, MP also in 1984, was appointed Minister in the 2004 Government, and HKL Bhagat became MP. Sajjan Kumar, MP in 1984, remains a senior official in the party. Bhagat was a minister in 1984.

1 Gurdeep Kaur, Block 32, Trilokpuri, Delhi, quoted in Tavleen Singh, Shame, Indian Express (October 27 1989)

2 Jaskaran Kaur, Twenty Years of Impunity, A Report by ENSAAF, 2004