MEMORANDUM

The Hon Madam Mary Robinson

Commissioner

United Nations Commission for Human Rights

Palais des Nations

CH 1211 Geneva 10

SWITZERLAND

2^nd April, 2002

The Hon Madam Robinson,

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS STRANGULATION OF SIKHS IN THEIR HOLYLAND AND HISTORICAL LAND, PUNJAB,  IN PREDOMINANTLY HINDU INDIA

We the Sikhs, with our holy and historical land Punjab, which is under the occupation of the New Delhi administration (NDA) of the predominantly Hindu India, have been struggling for our sovereignty and independence ever since our forefathers of Sikh Raj, a sovereign and independent nation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, surrendered their arms before the British Raj’s Major-General Gilbert on 14th March, 1849. On 29th March, 1849, Lord Dalhousie, then Viceroy of the British Empire, proclaimed the annexation of the Sikh Raj with the British India Company for administration purpose only. The fait accompli tied the Sikh Raj to the predominantly Hindu India on 15th August, 1947, despite our leadership’s protest when the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, threatened the Sikh leadership with "either the Sikhs go with Hindu India or else be prepared for genocide by the British India army (Viceroy’s Report No. 8, CAB 127/11, XCA 04623 dated May 23, 1947).” Other salient features of our struggle, in addition to our sovereignty and independence, are to fight against the massive human, economic, religious, political, social rights violations and injustices, taking place in Punjab, under the occupation of the NDA, and NDA’ s law-enforcement and armed personnel.

Historically, the hollow promises made to the Sikhs have been as follows:

"...in future, the Congress shall accept no constitution which does not meet with the satisfaction of the Sikhs"

-The Lahore session of the Congress Party, December 31, 1929

"...the brave Sikhs of Punjab are entitled to special considerations.  I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the North of India wherein, the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom."
-Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lahore Bulletin, January 9, 1930

"I ask you to accept my word and the Resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual much less a community.  Let God be the witness of the bond that binds me and the Congress with you (the Sikhs).  When pressed further Gandhi said that Sikhs would be justified in drawing their swords out of the scabbards as Guru Gobind Singh had asked them to, if Congress would rescind its commitment."

-Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Young India, March 19, 1931)

"In 1942, Master Tara Singh demanded the Azad (sovereign and free) Punjab."
"...Master Tara Singh saw me on his return from Delhi, and seemed really concerned at the approaching departure of the British.  He demanded Khalistan, with transfer of population, or a new state from Jumuna to Chenab, in which the Sikhs would not be oppressed"

-Sir E. Jenkins (Governor of the Punjab), 15th April, 1946

None of the promises made to the Sikhs in the pre-15th August, 1947 era, by the Hindu leadership has been kept. "The Sikhs had been thrown to the wolves of Brahminical vintage. For the first time in their history, they came under the tutelage of Brahminical Hindus" (Singh S 1995 The Sikhs in History,  PO Box 453, Hewlett, NY 11557 ISBN 0-9647555-0-5). The Sikhs have been robbed in  broad daylight. During the partition period in 1947, over 10 million Sikhs, Muslims and others were displaced, made homeless and became refugees because of the decision of the British Raj.  Over a million people perished, mainly the Sikhs and Muslims, due to the anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim policies of M. K. Gandhi and his elite associates like Nehru, Patel, Malviya, etc, (Singh S). Brahmins in post-1947 era, resumed their offensive against Sikhism, from a position of vantage, with full state support and renewed vigour, according to Dr Singh (1995). Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, rejected (before its proclamation in 1950 and on 6th September, 1966) by the Sikhs’ elected representatives in the parliament, deliberately termed the Sikhs as Hindus, to wipe them out and deliberately change their history, existence and undermine their Sikh identity (Dilgeer HS and Sekhon AS 1992 The Sikhs’ Struggle for Sovereignty An Historical Perspective (ed) A T Kerr ISBN 0-9695964-0-5; Sekhon AS and Dilgeer HS 1999 A White Paper On Khalistan (A True Story) The Sikh Nation (ed) A T Kerr ISBN 0-9695964-8-0, The Sikh Educational Trust, Box 60246, University of Alberta Postal Outlet, Edmonton, AB T6G 2S5, CANADA).

To finish the Sikhs, the Hindu administration waged an undeclared war, by suspending all means of communications (transport, news media and imposition of a round the clock curfew) in June, 1984, under "Operation Bluestar." In this brutal military operation, more than 60,000 innocent Sikh infants, youth, male and female, and the elderly were mercilessly killed, between 1st and 7th June.
Communicating with Gen.Vaidya, in charge of the military operation, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, said to her general that "I want Bhindranwale dead. I don’t give a damn if the whole of Amritsar is destroyed."

The Prime Minister’s advisor and Foreign Secretary, M M K Wali said that "We have broken the back of the Sikhs and we will get them elsewhere." June 7, 1984 (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio 740, As It Happens).

Since "Operation Bluestar" of June, 1984, the sinister designs of the Indian administrations of New Delhi include to carry out smear campaigns against the Sikhs living outside Punjab, and to oppress, humiliate, terrorize and eliminate Sikhs in Punjab:

The NDA and its agencies have killed more than 260,000 Sikhs in Punjab. There have been more than 300 cases of injustices since a pro-NDA (pro-BJP) Sikh, Prakash Sinh Badal, assumed Punjab’s Chief Ministership. For unfulfilling his election promises, Badal has been rejected by the citizens of the Sikh nation, Punjab.

There have been more than 70,000 Sikhs languishing in jails, with no hope of trials, since "Operation Bluestar" of June, 1984.

Mr Surjit Singh, son of Mr Dharam Singh Masuta, village and Post office Bhungranni, district Hoshiarpr, was

Abducted by the Delhi police on 21^st June, 2000. He is still incarcerated and continues to be subjected to Inhumane Treatment. His family is openly harassed by the state. (Awaz-e-Qaum International, issue No. 730,  dated 31st August-6th September,  2000' page 9).

Mr Kuldip Singh Bains, son of Mr Shivdev Singh, of the village Piplanwala in Hosiarpur district of Punjab was arrested by the Central Police Reserve Force, on 8^th June, 1987. In the night of  10-11^th June, 1987, the Station House Officer and his team of the Tanda police station, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, killed him in a staged encounter, on the directions of Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Sandhu (deceased). When Kuldip Singh Bains’ father tried to register a case against the Tanda police station’s in charge, he was refused to do so, despite his appeal to the Chief Minister, Governor of Punjab, and other federal authorities in  New Delhi.

Hindu fundamentalists and hoodlums, with the blessings of the NDA, have killed other non-Hindu minorities (the Muslims, Muslims of the occupied-Jammu and Kashmir, Christians, Roman Catholic nuns, and clergy), and burned alive the Christian missionary and his sons (from Australia). Secretive plans are underway to exterminate the non-Hindu minorities, the Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Adivaasis and others others [Charhdikala, July 5 and 12, 2000; International Journal of Sikh Affairs 10(1), 3, 2000; Dhillon GS 2000 RSS Agenda and the Sikhs. Int J Sikh Affairs 10(1), 1-2. ISSN 1481-5435; Congress of the United States 2000 Int J Sikh Affairs 10(1), 37-45; RSS Bombs Christian Women’s Prayer Meeting by Hon Edolphus Towns, MC; Declare India A Terrorist State by 21 members of the U S Congress; Government Organized Carnage by G. S. Babbar. Int J. Sikh Affairs 10(1), 42, 2000].

It is requested to your Excellency that India be tried in the International Court of Justice and the international economic aid programmes be suspended on the following grounds:

1. Gross human rights violations and humiliations
2. Elimination of non-Hindu minorities through numerous genocides, pogroms, staged encounters, injustices, police and armed personnel’s excesses, torture, state-sponsored extermination programmes, rapes, loots, burning of agricultural fields in Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and other nations seeking their independence from the slavery of Hindu India
3. Denial of justice to the Delhi massacre victims.
4. Branding Mr Sukhbir Singh Osan (now deceased) as a "Terrorist" and terminating his credentials as a journalist.  Sukhbir Singh Osan operated a web site,http://www.burningpunjab.com (Int J Sikh Affairs 9(2), 22, 2000 ISSN 1481-5435).
5. Desecration, destruction and burning of Houses of God [Darbar Sahib Complex, Akal Takht Sahib (the Sikhs’ supreme seat of polity), Mosques and Churches; Charhdikala 20-26 March, 2002].
6. Driving the remaining Sikh youth to foreign countries, to beg for "political asylum." This process is equal to the exterminating and driving the Buddhist faith out of India.
7. The NDA and its agents spent Rupees 4,500 crors (unacccountable; US$3.5 billion) to breed terrorism in Punjab [Dr Sekhon’s letter of 8th June, 1995, to Prime Minister P. V. Rao; Sekhon AS Dilgeer HS 1999 A White Paper On Khalistan (A Ture Story) The Sikh Nation ISBN 0-9695964-8-0].

8. Killing of more than 700 Muslims in Gujarat (February, 2002 until the writing of this submission; National Post, 1^st  and 2^nd March, 2002; The Edmonton Journal, 1^st  and 3^rd March, 2002; Phares T 2002 India: Allies or Instigators? www.yahoogroups.com/grouth/khalistan, 27th March), and terrorizing the non-Hindu minorities throughout India. A woman was stripped and fatally stabbed by a mob on the eve of Muharram in Gujarat where hundreds have died in the bloodiest sectarian riots (www.nation.com.pk; 25^th March, 2002).

9. More than 52,268 political prisoners are rotting in jails without charges and judicial trials, as admitted by India (Report of Movement Against State Repression, May 2001). Many have been in illegal custody since “Operation Bluestar” of June, 1984. According to Amnesty International, tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners.

We look forward to hearing from you, Madam Robinson.

Respectfully submitted,

The Sikhs of Switzerland                
Signed by: Pritpal Singh Khalsa

Khalsa Human Rights of the United Kingdom    
Signed by: Gurjit Singh Samara

Signed by: Dr Awatar Singh Sekhon
The Sikh Educational Trust, Bob 60246,

Univ of Alberta Postal Outlet, Edmonton, AB,

Dal Khalsa International                                       
Signed by Jasvir Singh

( Amarjit Singh Khalsa)