--- Original Message --- Islamic News and Information Network Wrote on Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:42:50 -0500 (CDT) ------------------ 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).] >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------