Author: IANS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 2, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/321437/US-court-summons-Congress-party-on-Sikh-riots-case.html
A US court has issued summons to India's Congress
party to answer charges of "conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying
out organized attacks on Sikh population of India in November 1984."
The US District Court for the Southern District
of New York issued the summons Tuesday in a class action law suit filed by
Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US based community group along with several Sikh
survivors of the 1984 attacks.
The compliant against Congress alleges that
in November 1984 the "organized killing" of Sikhs took place only
in states where Congress was in power, according to SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant
Singh Pannun.
According to the Government of India's record
a total of 3296 Sikhs were killed while a total of 35,535 claims for deaths
and injuries were received throughout India, he said.
But "The gravity, scale and specially
the organized nature of these attacks was concealed by the Indian governments'
portraying them as 'November 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots of Delhi,'" Pannun
said.
These attacks were neither "riots"
nor were they confined to Delhi alone. In fact, during November 1984, Sikhs
were attacked in 18 states and more than 100 cities of India in an identical
manner and the attackers were led by Congress (I) leaders, the complaint alleged.
Indian National Congress, the political party
in power then and now, committed the crime of Genocide against Sikhs as defined
in Article 2 of UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, 1948, it said.
The government of India, by painting the attacks
on Sikhs in November 1984 as "riots" instead of "Genocide"
and by failing to punish the leaders of Congress (I), violated its duties
under Article 1 the Genocide Convention, Pannun said.
Seeking relief under Alien Tort Claims Act
(ATCA) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) is motivated by an interest
in seeking some form of justice for the victims of November 1984 Sikh Genocide,
he said.
It will raise awareness to the international
community regarding denial of justice to the victims and is a means of holding
parties in power accountable for their gross violations of human rights -
while also offering the potential to deter future abuses, Pannun said.
The SFJ complaint also refers to the February
2011 discovery of "mass grave" of Sikhs who were killed in November
1984 in Haryana.
