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“STATE DEPARTMENT TERRORISM VIDEO OFFENSIVE, MUST BE WITHDRAWN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1837-E1838 on Sept. 17, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STATE DEPARTMENT TERRORISM VIDEO OFFENSIVE, MUST BE WITHDRAWN
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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, recently the State Department put out a video called ``Terrorism: A War Without Borders'' that is offensive. The video portrays all Sikhs as terrorists. This characterization is inaccurate. It is also offensive to any fair-minded person. How can the State Department portray an entire group as terrorists? Secretary Powell should order the immediate withdrawal of this offensive video. This kind of stereotyping is simply unacceptable.
There are more than half a million Sikhs in the United States. Are they all terrorists, Mr. Speaker? They are active in all phases of American life, from law to medicine to agriculture to information technology. These are people who contribute a lot to America's way of life. Many of them were attacked after September 11, yet they still believe in America.
To label all Sikhs terrorists demeans the Sikh people, their faith, and their national aspirations and culture. This is extremely unfair. Yet the video consistently labels Sikhs as ``terrorists'' while ignoring the brutal atrocities carried out against minorities by the Indian government. For example, the video's description of the attack on the Golden Temple in June 1984 simply refers to ``Sikhs,'' thus condemning all Sikhs as members of a terrorist organization.
What the video ignores is that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, General Shabeg Singh, and many other Sikh leaders took refuge in the Golden Temple to protect themselves from the atrocities that the Indian government was already carrying out. They had been threatened with violence for peacefully speaking out on behalf of the rights of their people.
Over 20,000 Sikhs were killed over that three-day period in June 1984 as the Indian government attacked the Golden Temple and 38 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab to frighten the Sikhs and end their movement to free themselves. Instead, just as Bhindranwale predicted, they laid the foundations for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, which finally declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987. Let me be among the first to congratulate the Sikhs on the upcoming anniversary of that event.
Mr. Speaker, we all seek good relations with India. But it is offensive and inappropriate to suppress atrocities and spread inaccurate propaganda to achieve this objective. Why is our government placing the derogatory label of terrorist on an entire people? This is not something the government of the United States, which was founded on tolerance, should be doing.
The State Department should immediately remove this from circulation immediately so that it can either be corrected or withdrawn. Fairness demands that we stop labelling entire peoples with derogatory characterizations like ``terrorist.''
Our government should stop American aid and trade with India until the Sikhs, the Nagas, the Kashmins and all the people of South Asia enjoy full freedom and democratic rights and we should strongly and actively support these peoples in their effort to have self-determination in free and independent states.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the recent letter from International Sikh Organization to Secretary of State Powell about this video into the Record.
Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Tenth Master
Washington, DC, July 29, 2003.Hon. Colin Powell Secretary of State, Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Powell: On behalf of the 25 million strong Sikh Nation and over 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, I am writing to express the outrage of the Sikh community at the new video ``Terrorism: A War Without Borders.'' While Sikhs fully support the war against terrorism, your video inaccurately depicts Sikhs as terrorists.
The video is offensive to Sikhs around the world. It significantly misrepresents the Sikh faith and the Sikh culture. The video inaccurately uses the term ``Sikh terrorist'' to broadly label all of the world's 25 million Sikhs--500,000 of whom live in the United States--and condemns all people of the Sikh faith. This is offensive and inaccurate.
The video's description of the June 1984 Indian military attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most sacred of Sikh shrines, is completely bogus and entirely false. Every terrorist act cited in the video is described as either the work of an individual or a group of a certain nationality or a group with its own identity. But in the 1984 Attack on Darbar Sahib, the video refers to the terrorists as
``Sikhs''. It shows Sikhs, easily recognizable from their turbans and beards, with weapons in the Darbar Sahib complex along with some Indian soldiers. The fact is that there were no ``terrorists'' in Darbar Sahib. Sikh leaders, including Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and others, took refuge there to protect themselves from Indian government violence against Sikhs. Letters reprinted in the book Chakravyuh: Web of Indian Secularism show conclusively that India pre-planned this attack in order to kill Bhindranwale and other Sikh leaders who spoke out peacefully for Sikh sovereignty. After the attack, Indira Gandhi said, ``I have broken the back of the Sikh Nation by attacking the Golden Temple.'' If the sanctity of the Golden Temple cannot be protected, how can the Sikh Nation survive?
Labelling all Sikhs who support an independent, sovereign Khalistan as terrorists is the propaganda line of the repressive Indian regime. I would expect better from the State Department, especially under your outstanding leadership, than to spout the cliches of Indian disinformation.
The segment on the Darbar Sahib attack states: ``In an effort to establish an independent state, Sikh terrorists seized Darbar Sahib Shrine in Amritsar, India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a military campaign to drive out the terrorists. Hundreds were killed.'' In fact, over 20,000 were murdered in the attack on Darbar Sahib and 38 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, which was known as Operation Bluestar. The aim of this operation was to wipe out the Sikh religion.
In actuality, it is the Indian government that is the terrorist organization. The Washington Times reported on January 2, 2002 that the Indian government is sponsoring cross-border terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh. India stationed troops on the border in Kashmir while Pakistani troops were helping American forces look for Al Qaeda operatives, forcing Pakistan to divert troops to that border and reducing the effectiveness of their help in the search for Al Qaeda. This was a de facto pro-terrorist action. It has provided heavy water to Iran and has done business with Iraq for many years. The Indian oil minister declared Iraq ``a strategic partner.''
In November 1994, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that India paid the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, about $1.5 billion to organize and support covert terrorist activities in Punjab and Kashmir. Two independent reports and an article in the New York Times magazine all showed that Indian forces were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora in March 2000 during President Clinton's visit. Indian forces were caught red-handed trying to set fire to a Gurdwara and some Sikh homes in a village in Kashmir. The book Soft Target conclusively shows that India blew up its own airliner, killing 329 innocent people, to blame the Sikhs. Why is the State Department trying to appease such a state?
In all, over 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian government since the Golden Temple attack, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and human rights groups and reported in The Politics of Genocide by Inderjit Singh Jaijee. According to a report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), the Indian government admits to holding 52,268 political prisoners under the brutal, repressive ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act''
(TADA), which expired in 1995. Another 50,000 have been arrested, tortured, killed in custody, declared
``unidentified,'' and secretly cremated. The man who exposed this secret cremation policy, Jaswant Singh Khalra, was kidnapped by the police and murdered while in police custody. His body was never handed over to his family.
India has murdered over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. An Indian Cabinet minister said that everyone who lives in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to Hinduism.
Since Christmas 1998, priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, churches have been burned, Christian schools have been attacked. Missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, ages 8 and 10, were burned to death while sleeping in their jeep. Their killers chanted ``Victory to Hannuman,'' a Hindu god. None of these people has been brought to justice. Missionary Joseph Cooper was deported back to Pennsylvania after Hindus attacked him so severely that he had to spend a week in the hospital. No action has been taken in these cases. Police broke up a Christian religious festival by opening fire on it. All over India, laws are being passed that ban conversion to any religion except Hinduism.
Newspaper reports show that the Indian government pre-planned the attack on Muslims in Gujarat last year in which 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims were killed, according to the Indian newspaper The Hindu. Police were ordered to stand aside and let the massacre happen, in a striking parallel to the 1984 Delhi massacre of Sikhs in which police were locked in their barracks while state-run television and radio called for more Sikh blood.
Secretary Powell, the State Department owes the Sikh Nation an apology. On behalf of the Sikh community in America and worldwide, I request an apology and correction from you for this offensive and inaccurate video. The video should be corrected or withdrawn. I thought that the United States of America was dedicated to the truth, not to spreading the disinformation of a terrorist regime.
I would like to meet with you about this at your earliest convenience. Please contact me at the above number to let me know when we can meet. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,President, International Sikh Organization.
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