wfn.org | India: Victims of anti-Sikh riots face further delays

[World Sikh Council - America Region <contact@worldsikhcouncil.org>]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 20/031/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 225
16 August 2005

India: Victims of anti-Sikh riots face further delays

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=80256DD400782B848025705F0043A385

Amnesty International urges the Government of India to fulfil its promises
to hold to account with speed and earnest commitment any individual,
including police or government officials, found responsible for human
rights violations during the violence against Sikhs in Delhi in 1984. The
organisation is concerned about further delays in the pursuit of justice
for these victims and continuing impunity for its perpetrators.

Twenty-one years after the violence against Sikhs in 1984, virtually no one
has been held to account. Eight inquiry commissions concerning the
anti-Sikh riots have preceded the Nanavati Commission, but victims have yet
to see justice. According to local media, some victims see the latest
government move to open new investigations as a tactic to "waste more
time". NDTV, "Tytler's resignation an eyewash say riot victims", 11 August
2005.

After the Nanavati Commission report and the Government's Action Taken
Report were tabled in Parliament last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
condemned the violence against Sikhs in 1984 and said criminal cases
against individuals named in the latest report would be re-opened and
re-examined "within the ambit of law." The Defence Minister, Pranab
Mukherjee, clarified that there would be no further commissions of inquiry
but investigations by the appropriate authority into specific findings
against persons named in the report. While Amnesty International welcomes
these steps, the organisation is concerned about ongoing delays and urges
the Government of India to hold any perpetrators to account in a speedy and
transparent manner.

A similar pattern of delays to justice and impunity for perpetrators exists
for other large scale incidents of human rights violations in the country.

During the period of militancy in the state of Punjab - mid 1980s to mid
1990s - Amnesty International received reports of torture, deaths in
custody, extrajudicial executions and 'disappearances'. While there have
been a small number of prosecutions and despite the recommendations of
specially established judicial inquiries and commissions, impunity has
prevailed in many cases. Amnesty International calls for an end to impunity
in these cases.

Amnesty International is also concerned about the ongoing impunity for
perpetrators of human rights abuses against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.
Over 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in targeted violence,
including hundreds of girls and women who were publicly stripped, raped and
gang raped, following a fire in a train in which 59 Hindu activists had
died. While some cases are being tried outside Gujarat State and the
Supreme Court has directed that over 2,000 previously closed complaints be
reviewed with a view to possible remedies, few perpetrators have been held
to account. Amnesty International urges the Government of India and
particularly the Government of Gujarat to take urgent steps to end impunity
in the state.

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World Sikh Council ­ America Region (WSC-AR)
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Email: contact@worldsikhcouncil.org
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