Truth & Justice

We, the undersigned, state that since 1984, some 180,000 Sikhs (1) have been killed by Indias security forces. We believe that this amounts to genocide on the Sikh community, under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Other communities such as the Kashmiris, Nagas, Dalits, Muslims and Assamese have suffered similarly in India, over the same period.

We recall the tragic and devastating events of June 1984 in Amritsar, Panjab and of November 1984 in New Delhi. India's whole scale military crackdown in Panjab in June 1984, resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Sikh civilians during the Indian Army attack on the Golden Temple complex and the subsequent draconian sweep through Panjab.

In November 1984, thousands of Sikh civilians in New Delhi and other major cities, were systematically hunted down and murdered in their homes and on the streets; with the open complicity of the Indian police.

Over the last 20 years, India has imposed a regime of gruesome repression and murder on the Sikh population in Panjab. Tens of thousands of Sikh civilians have been killed in a combination of staged 'armed encounters' and 'disappearances'.

Amnesty International(2) and Human Rights Watch (3)have together produced over twenty separate reports, documenting widespread human rights atrocities in Panjab by India's police and army.Torture, arbitrary incarceration, and custodial deaths, are reported as routine and widespread. India has refused to open up to an international scrutiny of these incidents. It has barred Amnesty International, since 1978; and has refused to permit access to the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture and Disappearances.

Many human rights activists, such as Jaswant Singh Khalra (4), have been killed in police custody or 'disappeared' in sinister circumstances.

Human rights should be enjoyed by all people at all times. We believe that awareness of these issues will help the struggle to end grave abuses of the fundamental human rights in Panjab and elsewhere in India. We come from all walks of life, with widely different political and religious views, united by our determination to ensure everyone enjoys basic human rights. We want to give hope to the people of Panjab that justice will be done. At the same time, we strongly and unequivocally condemn thekillings of other innocents, including Hindus, that took place duringthe same period. Acts like these were used to further communalise the situation and impose further draconian measures.

We call upon the British Government and European Union to bear pressure on the Government of India to prosecute those who have committed these crimes against humanity. We also call upon the United Nations to establish and supervise in the Panjab a full and independent Commission for Truth & Justice in order to document the atrocities that have been committed over the past 20 years.


Notes
(1) Politics of Genocide (1995) by Inderjit Singh Jaijee of the Movement against State Repression, p 41 quoting three human rights groups and three Advocates Generals who researched the killings for the period 1984-1994.
(2) Break the Cycle of Impunity and Torture in Punjab (2003), Amnesty International.
(3)Dead Silence: The Legacy of Abuses in Punjab (1994), Physicians for Human Rights.
(4) A Mockery of Justice The case concerning the disappearance of human rightrs defender Jaswant Singh Khalra severely undermined, Amnesty International (1998