Sikh group asks US to declare 1984 violence as genocide

[Spring Onion]

Sikh group asks US to declare 1984 violence as genocide| Feb 8, 2013, 01.29 PM IST

WASHINGTON: A US Sikh rights group has met State Department officials in support of its petition to the Obama administration to recognise the violence against Sikhs in India in November 1984 as " genocide".

"Contrary to what is commonly portrayed, November 1984 was not the result of a spontaneous reaction of the masses on the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi," Sikh for Justice (SFJ) legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said.

"It was rather an organized, deliberate and politically engineered action by Congress (party) leaders," he said.


In a media release on Thursday, SFJ said to secure support for its "genocide" petition, it had met various officials of the US Department of State.

It had also submitted a legal brief, statements of survivors and evidence relating to the 2011 discovery of mass graves in Hondh-Chillar, Haryana, and other states of India.


The group also presented official Indian government records showing that a total of 35,000 claims of deaths and serious injuries were filed by Sikhs who suffered attacks during November 1984.


More than 20,000 of these claims were from attacks that took place in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, it said.
On Dec 15, a petition with more than 46,000 signatures was submitted to the Obama Administration urging it to recognise the violence against Sikhs during November 1984 as genocide.



Sikh group asks US to declare 1984 violence as genocide - The Times of India

 

[KS]

An issue which has been discussed to death

Atleast the Webmaster must create a separate thread for 1984 instead of repeatedly creating threads on the same issue.

 

[Spring Onion]

An issue which has been discussed to death

Atleast the Webmaster must create a separate thread for 1984 instead of repeatedly creating threads on the same issue.

merg the threads

 

[Hellraiser007]

merg the threads

Why they are asking US when US itself is doing massacres throughout history and are continuing to do with drone strikes and WOT??

May be genocide list should be updated with the Vietnam Genocide, Iraq Genocide, NWFP Genocide, Korean Genocide and Native red Indian Genocide (this one is the biggest one).

As the US empire power declines these things will be considered as Genocides may be in future.

 

[Spring Onion]

Why they are asking US when US itself is doing massacres throughout history and are continuing to do with drone strikes and WOT??

May be genocide list should be updated with the Vietnam Massacre, Iraq Massacre, NWFP massacre, Korean Massacre and Native red Indian massacre (this one is the biggest one).

US has the stick and veto power gives is absolute right to look the other way

 

[Capt.Popeye]

^^^
Great. By the way, there was a move in Australia to declare 1984 as genocide; what happened to that? Total silence after that.
Next one will be a move in Somalia to declare 1984 as genocide.
I hope our Springy Onion will let us know when that happens.

 

[ashok321]

Good, great, keep it coming. This way CONgress would go in the dustbin of the history. 4000 Sikhs died, no such Media halabalu, but when 700 Muslims died in Gujarat, the Media burnt the midnight oil, and CONgress propaganda machinery in top gear......


Tumhara khoon khoon - hamara khoon pani?

 

[Hellraiser007]

US has the stick and veto power gives is absolute right to look the other way

May be down the lane if US looses its power the generals who fought and killed Iraqis with out any evidence of Nuclear and biological weapons will be tried like Nazi generals

 

[Spring Onion]

May be down the lane if US looses its power the generals who fought and killed Iraqis with out any evidence of Nuclear and biological weapons will be tried like Nazi generals

who will try them?

US aint going to lose the power.

 

[Hellraiser007]

who will try them?

US aint going to lose the power.

Any thing in this world which rises will eventually falls

 

[RISING SUN]

US refuses to declare 1984 riots in India as genocide
Washington: The Obama Administration on Tuesday refused to declare the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India a genocide, but noted that grave human rights violations had occurred.

The White House response in this regard came months after a section of the Sikh community in the US launched an online petition campaign urging the Obama Administration to recognize the 1984 riots as genocide.

The petition created on November 15, 2012, had generated more than 30,000 signatures within weeks.
Each petition that crosses the threshold of 25,000 signatures is reviewed and receives a response.

"During and after the 1984 violence, the United States monitored and publicly reported on the grave human rights violations that occurred and the atrocities committed against members of the Sikh community," the White House response said.

It noted that the US State Department's Official Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, for example, covered the violence and its aftermath in detail, with sections on political killings, disappearances, denial of fair public trials, negative effects on freedom of religion, and the government's response to civil society organizations investigating allegations of human rights violations.

"We continue to condemn -- and more importantly, to work against - violence directed at people based on their religious affiliation. US Government efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of all people have long been a feature of our foreign policy. Our diplomats regularly report on and speak out against violence against minorities around the world," the White House said in response to the online petition.

Expressing disappointment over the response, the proponents of the petition in a statement said that the Obama Administration "fails to take position on Sikh genocide".

"The response ignores the recent discoveries of mass graves of Sikhs killed during 1984 and falls short of taking a position on the issue of Genocide," said a statement issued by Gurpatwant S Pannun, who heads the New York-based 'Sikh for Justice' group.
US refuses to declare 1984 riots in India as genocide | NDTV.com
I thought to post a thread but found that ma'am had already created a thread, so posted here as a reply.

No sane person can deny that human rights violations occurred from both sides. There is one liner which many of politicians and others say that forget the past and build the future. But for the sake of humanity it is better to remember the past & avoid the past mistakes. We should rectify our mistakes, why did it happen, what was reason, more importantly the causes. Further saying that I have heard that in those times Khalistani terror was fruit & politicians had sowed it for more popularity and personal gains which backfired & grew manifold.
There is a saying that if a rope is broken, you can't erase the joints if made one at all.
I am seeing the same kind of approach everywhere. In J&K Sunni vs Shia, Buddhists, Hindu & Sikhs, in Punjab Sikh ideology different from Hindu ideology, in Maharashtra new rough patches are visible, politicians from Tamil Nadu are giving ultimatums, north east has its own share of problem, naxal problem has broken the back of Indian federalism in few areas. All this is directly related done by politicians to either get more focus or use it as weapon to weaken the opponent in any way. I believe India needs a real kranti to bring these people on the right track.
I know very well that many of us will deny these facts but believe me during last November to January I traveled across India to conduct the tech-fest event of IIT Bombay & I came across these various problems. People were more than eager to share problems but not with politicians. Even in Amritsar and Pathankot I got the hint that some interior areas of Punjab including Jalandhar are becoming hotbed of these kind of separatist movements although very silently. More we pretend to live in fantasy, more problem we will face in future. Hope our generation works in a synchronized way to protect our liberty, freedom & hard won identity as a Indian.