The Honorable Bill Clinton
President of the United
States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
July 28, 2000
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the 21 million
strong Sikh Nation and over 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, I
urge you to press the issues of human rights and self-determination in
South Asia when Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee visits you in September.
India is a country which,
despite its claim to be democratic, is killing Christians, Sikhs, Muslims,
and other minorities. It commits atrocities against the minority
peoples and nations within its artificial borders on a regular basis.
India has murdered over
250,000 Sikhs since 1984, according to The Politics of Genocide by Inderjit
Singh Jaijee. It has also killed over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland
since 1947, over 70,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands
of Dalits, Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. Amnesty International
reports that India is holding thousands of political prisoners.
Mr. President, as you
mentioned in your speech in Atlanta at a fundraiser for Representative
Cynthia McKinney, 35 innocent Sikhs were murdered in Chithi Singhpora during
your visit to India in March because someone wanted to make a point.
You knew that it was the Indian government. Now two extensive investigations,
one by the Ludhiana-based International Human Rights Organization and one
by the Movement Against State Repression and the Punjab Human Rights Organization,
proved that the Indian government massacred 35 Sikhs in the village of
Chithi Singhpora. A recent report by Amnesty International confirmed
these findings. India killed five Kashmiri Muslims claiming that
they were responsible for the massacre, but now India has admitted that
the Kashmiris they killed are innocent. The time has come for them
to admit that the government carried out the Chithi Singhpora massacre.
Since Christmas 1998
there has been a wave of violence against Christians. Priests and
missionaries have been beaten, tortured, and murdered. Nuns have
been raped. Churches have been burned and bombed. Christian schools
and prayer halls have been attacked.
Last week, two more churches
were bombed in the Indian state of Karnataka. These attacks came
just a moth after a Catholic church was bombed in Bangalore. Late last
month, a Hindu woman poured boiling oil on a group of militant Hindu nationalists
who were attacking her tenant, a Catholic priest. Four Christian
missionaries were beaten last month, one so severely that he may lose his
arms and legs. These missionaries were beaten for distributing Christian
religious literature and Bibles. The RSS, a Fascist organization that is
the parent organization of the ruling BJP, has published a booklet on how
to implicate Christians in false criminal cases. On Easter, a group
of nuns on their way to Easter services were run down by Hindu fundamentalists
riding motor scooters. In March, a Sikh family saved some nuns whose convent
was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists.
A women's prayer meeting
was bombed by militant Hindu fundamentalists. In April, fundamentalist
Hindus attacked a Christian group and burned biblical literature.
Last fall, Hindu fundamentalists aligned with the ruling BJP abducted a
nun named Sister Ruby and forced her to drink their urine. Hindus chanting
"Victory to Hannuman," a Hindu god, burned missionary Graham Staines to
death along with his 8-year-old and 10-year-old sons, while they slept
in their jeep. The violence has been carried out by the RSS and other
allies and supporters of the BJP government in India and no one ever seems
to be punished for these acts.
Now Bal Thackeray, founder
of Shiv Sena, a coalition partner of the ruling BJP, threatens to engulf
India in violence if he is held to account for his part in thousands of
murders in 1992. Is this what happens in a democracy? America
should declare India a terrorist state and stop its aid to India until
these atrocities against the minorities end.
We all want good relations
with all countries, including India. However, India is a hostile country
which tried last year to construct a security alliance with Serbia, Cuba,
Iraq, Libya, China, and Russia "to stop the U.S." India introduced
nuclear weapons into the subcontinent. It boasts that its missiles could
reach anywhere in the world. India has stationed over 700,000 troops
in Kashmir and more than half a million troops in Punjab, Khalistan.
The Sikh Nation of Khalistan
declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987.After the partition
of India in 1948 Kashmir was granted special status and India promised
the United Nations that it would hold a plebiscite on Kashmir's status.
This promise was not kept. The plebiscite has not been held to this
day. Kashmiris and other minority nations living under Indian occupation
seek their God-given right to determine their own affairs. The United
States should support a free and fair plebiscite on the future of Khalistan,
of Kashmir, of predominantly Christian Nagalim, and the other nations.
That is how democratic nations settle these issues and it is how important
world powers do it.
If India wants to be
thought of as a democracy and as a major power, it must permit a free and
fair plebiscite. America is the bastion of freedom for the world.
It is time, Mr. President, to press for self-determination and human rights
for all people in South Asia.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh
President
Council of Khalistan
