[Page: E1727]

• Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the effort by political leaders in Punjab to shut down the People's Commission is very disturbing. This commission was formed after the Akali Dal Government in Punjab, which promised to expose the genocide against the Sikhs, said that it would not appoint a commission to do so after all. In fact, the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, proudly boasts that his government has taken no action to punish any of the police officers responsible for this genocide.

• This commission is not solely a Sikh organization. It was established by the Coordination Committee on Disappearance in Punjab, led by a Hindu human-rights activist, Ram Narayan Kumar. The three commission members are respected former Justices of the Indian Supreme Court, and two of the three are Hindus. And you might recall Mr. Speaker, it was the Indian Supreme Court that described the situation in Punjab, Khalistan as `worse than a genocide.'

• From August 8-10, 1998, the commission investigated 90 cases of genocide during its first meeting, and, as result, has requested those involved to bear the responsibility of their actions. Currently, the commission is investigating 3,000 more cases. In a country where over 250,000 Sikhs have been extrajudicially murdered by the police and other agents of the government since 1984, it is no wonder that the authorizes don't want the truth to get out. They are afraid that when the light of truth shines on them, they will be exposed as collaborators in the genocide against the Sikhs.

• America is the moral conscience of the world. We must not let this effort to bury the genocide and evade responsibility for these crimes succeed. It is our solemn duty to do whatever we can to make sure that the People's Commission is able to complete its work, and that the people responsible for these murders, abductions, and other acts of torture are exposed and brought to justice. Mr. Speaker, I call on the President to instruct our Ambassador to India to intervene on behalf of the commission. I further urge my colleagues to impose tough sanctions on India until the commission has completed its efforts to expose the genocide; and I urge the United States of America to go on record for self-determination for the Sikhs of Punjab, Khalistan, so that they can decide their own fate in a free and fair election. That way, the repressive actions of the police can finally come to an end and real democracy can come once and for all to Punjab, Khalistan.

• On September 3, 1998, the Hindustan Times ran a very informative article on the effort to close the People's Commission. I am placing it in the Record for the information of my colleagues. I hope we all will read it and consider the information therein.

NEW DELHI: Human rights activists are irked by the Government's disregard bordering on disdain, for the People's Commission that has been hearing complaints of human rights violations in Punjab since the time when the State was in the thick of terrorism.

`How can the Government ignore the necessity to determine the facts,' wondered Mr. Ram Narayan Kumar, convener of the committee for Coordination on Disappearance in Punjab. He was particularly livid that the commission was sought to be branded as `extra-judicial' by official agencies.

The commission is the brainchild of Justice (Retd) Kuldip Singh, who is a member of the Coordination Committee that functions as an umbrella organisation of Punjab-based human rights groups. The People's Commission was constituted, as a follow-up to the committee's first convention in December last year, as a functional-forum to defend human rights guaranteed under the Indian laws.

The complaints the People's Commission has been hearing, Mr. Kumar claimed, were based on facts revealing disappearances, custodial deaths and police torture. `The truth must come out. The incidents cannot be dismissed as forgotten past,' he averred.

Mr. Kumar has to his credit two books providing a historical perspective to the human rights situation in the border State.

According to him, the political leaders, bureaucratic and intellectuals were indifferent to the problem of civil liberties and human rights.

`Nobody is interested in fact finding. But the facts cannot be suppressed. Thousands of those whose kin have disappeared are awaiting justice,' Mr. Kumar said. Speaking on behalf of the committee, he claimed that the cases under scrutiny were based on extensive research work, `We want to propose reforms on the strength of facts and the existing law. Any attempt to vitiate the atmosphere might prove to be dangerous.'

The Akali Dal had promised, before coming to power, that it would have a detailed inquiry conducted into the human rights violations. `But now they want to forget the past,' he said.

During its first three-day session starting Aug. 8, the People's Commission heard complaints about alleged human rights violations at the time when Punjab was in turmoil. The `Bench' comprising three retired judges--Justices D.S. Tewatia, Justice H. Suresh and Justice Jaspal Singh--took up complaints of illegal abductions, custodial deaths, disappearances, summary executions and en masse illegal cremations.

The programmes adopted by the committee are aimed at countering, through an informed public opinion, the ongoing campaign for immunity for policemen charged with human rights violations; initiate a debate on vital issues of State power; organise compensation for the victims, and bring about change in domestic laws in conformity with the United Nations' instruments on torture and enforced disappearances.

Mr. Kumar dismissed the claims that the commission has been acting on the basis of one-sided stories. `We are willing to go into cases presented by widows of policemen killed by militants, we would be equally keen to study the instances they have documented,' he said.

The commission's next sitting is scheduled from Oct. 23-25 in Ludhiana. However, the legal validity of its actions is doubted by experts.

END