--- Original Message ---
Islamic News and Information Network Wrote on
Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:42:50 -0500 (CDT)
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Assalamu'alaikum,
21 U.S. Congress Members Declare India A Terrorist Country
http://www.paknews.org/cgi-paknews/paknews.cgi?news=100/June/22-6-1
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2000 (InfoTimes): Twenty-one Members of the United
States Congress have expressed deep concern over the daily and systematic
repression of Christians committed by Hindu rulers and terrorist, militant
and extremist Hindu fundamentalists in India. The 21 American legislators
have strongly urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to declare India a
terrorist state and to cut off American aid to India because the Indian
Government has committed a large number of terrorist crimes against
Christians, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Muslims, Dalits, Manipuris, Assamese, Tamils
and other minorities during 1947-2000.
In their joint letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton, dated June 15, 2000,
the 21 influential U.S. Congress Members wrote: "Dear Mr. President:
We are deeply concerned by the ongoing repression of Christians in India.
A wave of violence against Christians that has been going on since
Christmas 1998 has intensified recently."
The letter of 21 U.S. law-makers, who have declared India a terrorist
state, says the current Indian rulers and their private Hindu armies have
massacred, murdered, tortured, bombed, raped, kidnapped, terrorized,
beaten and burned innocent Christians in India. The 21 U.S. Congress
Members wrote: "On May 21, a prayer meeting of a Christian women's group
was bombed. An investigation by the All-India Christian Conference shows
that the Sangh Parivar, a branch of the Fascist RSS, the parent
organization of the ruling BJP, carried out the bombing, which injured 30,
four of them very seriously. Also in May, six Christian missionaries who
were distributing Bibles and religious literature were beaten by militant
Hindu fundamentalists. One of them may lose his arms and legs due to the
savage beating. On April 21 in Agra, a group of Hindu militants affiliated
with the Bajrang Dal attacked a Christian group and burned Biblical
literature. The Bajrang Dal is a wing of the RSS. In Haryana, three nuns
were run down by a motor scooter while they were on their way to Easter
services. The RSS recently published a booklet on how to implicate
Christians and other minorities in false criminal cases, the Hindustan
Times reported."
The 21 U.S. Congress Members further wrote: "Missionary Graham Staines was
burned to death along with his sons, who were 8 years old and 10 years
old, while they were asleep in their jeep. The killers chanted 'Victory to
Hannuman.' Hannuman is a Hindu god with the face of a monkey. Hindu
nationalists have murdered at least four priests, raped four nuns and
kidnapped another, whom they forced to drink her own bodily fluids. More
than 200,000 Christians in predominantly Christian Nagaland have been
killed by the Indian government. No one is punished for any of these
acts."
The letter of 21 U.S. Representatives to President Clinton points out that
the Indian Government has also committed many terrorist acts against
Sikhs, Kashmiris and Muslims in India. The letter states: "India has also
committed similar acts of terrorism against its Sikh and Muslim
minorities, among others. It has killed over 250,000 Sikhs. In March, the
[Indian] government massacred 35 Sikhs in the village of Chatti Singhpora.
According to the State Department, between 1991 and 1993, India paid out
more than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. India
has killed more than 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims and destroyed the most
revered mosque in Kashmir. Tens of thousands of Sikhs, Kashmiris,
Christians and others are being held as political prisoners."
The official letter of 21 U.S. Congress Members to President Clinton
concludes: "Mr. President, America cannot just watch these atrocities
happen. We call on you to declare India a terrorist nation. We further
urge an end to U.S. aid to India until human rights are enjoyed by all
people there. And we ask the United States to support self-determination
for all the peoples and nations of the subcontinent. Let the light of
freedom shine everywhere in South Asia."
The Congressional letter to President Clinton was sponsored and signed by
U.S. Representative Cynthia A. McKinney (D-GA). The following 20 U.S.
Congress Members have also signed the letter: Chairman of the Government
Reform and Oversight Committee Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), Rep. Edolphus Towns
(D-NY), Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ), Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA),
Rep. Major R. Owens (D-NY), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. Roscoe G.
Bartlett (R-MD), Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Rep. James A. Traficant, Jr.
(D-OH), Rep. Carlos A. Romero-Barcelo (D-PR), Rep. John T. Doolittle
(R-CA), Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-CA),
Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-CA), Rep. John Conyers,
Jr. (D-MI), Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX), Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-CA),
Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-MN), and Rep. Eva M. Clayton (D-NC).
"We thank Representative McKinney and all the courageous representatives
who wrote this letter to President Clinton asking him to declare India a
terrorist state," said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the
Washington-based Council of Khalistan. "These Members of Congress have
exposed the reality of Indian democracy," said Dr. Aulakh. "What is
happening to Christians is the same kind of tyranny and repression that
India has previously inflicted on Sikhs, Muslims and others," he added.
"It shows that India is democratic in name only," he said. "It is time for
America to support self-determination for Christians, Sikhs, Muslims and
all the peoples and nations of India," Dr. Aulakh said.
Pakistani 'Ambassador' to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistani diplomats and
Pakistan Government's lobbyists in the United States have miserably failed
to play any role in convincing the 21 U.S. Congress Members to write, sign
and send their letter to President Clinton. 'Ambassador' Lodhi, her highly
paid, useless, incompetent and unproductive lobbyists, and Pakistani
diplomats were not even aware that 21 honorable U.S. law-makers have sent
the aforementioned letter to the American President.
[Syed Adeeb, an investigative journalist, is Chief Editor of the
Information Times and Washington Bureau Chief of the Pakistan News Service
(PNS).]
>>
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