The petition provides “new evidence” aimed at proving that contrary to prevalent belief, the killings of Sikhs had spread to 18 States and 100 cities beyond Delhi. This includes, among other things, official government records that state that 35,000 Sikhs claimed damages for death and injury, out of which 20,000 claims are from Sikhs who were attacked outside Delhi.
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has accepted a report on the 1984 “Operation Bluestar”, a code name given by the Indian Army for a security operation to flush out militants from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.
The report was tabled during the 26th session of the UNHRC on “Interactive Dialogue On International Solidarity”.
The report was submitted by United States-based human rights NGOs “International Educational Development” (IED) and “Association of Humanitarian Lawyers” (AHL), and the “Sikhs for Justice” (SFJ) rights group.
The UNHRC session was attended by representatives of 52 member countries, including India, United States, European Union, Australia, Israel, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Iran and China. Several international human rights NGOs were also invited to address the Council members.
While giving details to ANI, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu of the SFJ said his organisation was of the view that basic humanitarian law provisions for the protection of civilians, cultural objects and places of worship were violated inter alia under Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocols Additional I and II to the Geneva Conventions.
The NGO stated, “In our view, this attack also constituted an act of aggression according to the General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974 due to the status of the state of Punjab under the terms of the right to self-determination.”
Addressing the UNHRC during its 26th Session, Jatinder Singh Grewal, Director International Policy, SFJ, stated that member states are under an affirmative duty to support “peoples” right to self determination under UN Charter and Covenants. “We consider the Sikh claim to self- determination in the Punjab especially strong and that the international community should support the claim,” Grewal added.
Sikh groups led by the U.S.-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) have petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva seeking specifically an international investigation into the November 1984 riots as well as the Council’s recognition of the killings as ‘genocide’ under Article 2 of the U.N. Convention on Genocide.
The petition was followed by a ‘Justice March’ by hundreds of Sikhs from Europe, Canada and the U.S.
The petition stresses that successive governments in India have deliberately misled the world community into believing that the 1984 killings were ‘riots’ confined to Delhi, when “there is ample evidence to the contrary”.
The petition titled, ‘1984: Yes, it’s genocide’ was filed under 1503 procedure of the United Nations on Friday and carries the required 10 lakh signatures from Sikhs across the world. It is spearheaded by the SFJ, several other Sikh human rights NGOs, as well as management committees of Sikh gurudwaras across Europe, America and Canada.
“New evidence”
The petition provides “new evidence” aimed at proving that contrary to prevalent belief, the killings of Sikhs had spread to 18 States and 100 cities beyond Delhi. This includes, among other things, official government records that state that 35,000 Sikhs claimed damages for death and injury, out of which 20,000 claims are from Sikhs who were attacked outside Delhi.
Further, the Sikh groups have provided new evidence of the existence of mass graves of 65 Sikhs in Hondh Chillar village of Haryana, discovered in February 2011, a mass cremation site at Pataudi in Haryana, and ruins of Sikh houses and gurudwaras in Gurgaon and West Bengal.
The petition states, “As a planned cover-up, remains of all such sites were cleaned and rebuilt to purge traces of the attacks. The debris and human remains at the newly discovered genocidal sites throughout India as well as the official records of the Indian government are the most specific irrefutable and convincing evidence that killing of Sikhs in November 1984 was ‘genocide’. The new evidence justifies new investigation.”
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