Amritsar, Punjab (March 26, 2014): Adding the Sikh perspective to the US sponsored UN resolution calling for credible independent investigation against war crimes committed in Sri Lanka, the Dal Khalsa said the blood of innocent Sikhs spilt in the precincts of Darbar Sahib Amritsar in June and the streets of Delhi in Nov 1984 beside extra-judicial killings in Punjab too cries for justice and demands attention of the international community.
Realizing that UN intervention in South Asia has been negligible, the party’s secretary for political affairs Kanwar Pal Singh has sent a letter addressed to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navi Pillay urging the UN to intervene in India also to ensure justice and protection of rights of Sikhs and Kashmiris particularly their right to self-determination.
Dal Khalsa secretary for human rights Prithpal Singh today met Ms Sabina Lauber, a Human Rights Officer in charge of Asia Pacific Section in Geneva and handed over the letter to him.
Informing the media about the meeting, Kanwar Pal Singh in Punjab said their group representative remained closest with the UN lady officer for 30 minutes, who assured him that their concerns and views would be conveyed at highest level. To express solidarity with Tamils and their cause, he participated in a sit-in organized by European Tamils outside UN headquarters.
In his letter to UN officer, he said like Tamils in Sri Lanka, Sikhs and Kashmiris face similar situation in India. He pointed out that while the Tamil human rights groups have succeeded in getting the attention of the world community and the UN, the Sikh efforts have not had much success. Mr Singh said Sikhs and Kashmiris have been crying hoarse for decades that India has committed gross violation of human rights. Like Sri Lanka, India too has continuously flouted UN resolutions, UN treaties and conventions, but to no avail. The Kashmiris have their long-pending historic right to plebiscite sanctioned by the UN, but still there is no UN intervention”, he said.
The Dal Khalsa letter expressed its displeasure that the US backed resolution nullifies the spirit of a proper UN intervention as it does not lead to a political solution of the crisis in Sri Lanka and significantly it does not address Eelam Tamils’ aspirations. “There’s no doubt that punishing the perpetrators of war crimes in Sri Lanka was required, but mere punishment without recourse to seeking a political resolution of the conflict is like losing Crimea to Russia and then imposing sanctions”.
The letter appreciated Tamil Nadu state assembly for favouring the creation of Tamil Eelam. The letter also quoted Tamil Nationalist and TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, who says that the resolution has nothing to do with bringing any decent change for the Tamils in the island.