| India:
Justice Eludes Families of the "Disappeared"
in Punjab National Human Rights Commission Should
Investigate
(New York, June 10, 2003)-India's National Human Rights
Commission must fulfill its mandate to investigate
forced
disappearances in Punjab, Human Rights Watch said
today.
Six years ago, the Indian Supreme Court directed the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate
2,097 cases of illegal cremation in Punjab's Amritsar
district. The NHRC has yet to hear testimony in a
single case.
Human Rights Watch commended the Committee for Coordination
of Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP), a Punjab-based
human rights organization, for its 634-page report
documenting 672 of the "disappearance" cases
currently pending before the NHRC. The first volume
of the report, titled Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency
and Human Rights in Punjab, is based on six years
of research and was released in the United States
on Wednesday.
"Ending state impunity for abuses in Punjab must
become a priority," said Smita Narula, senior
researcher for South Asia at Human Rights Watch. "The
National Human Rights Commission has shown great courage
and leadership with its work on the 2002 massacres
in Gujarat. We hope it will do the same in Punjab."
The CCDP's report builds on the work of Jaswant Singh
Khalra, a lawyer and human rights activist who was
abducted and "disappeared" in September
1995. Mr. Khalra filed the initial public interest
petition that eventually led the Indian Supreme Court
to order an NHRC investigation of the 2,097 illegal
cremations.
"Thousands of family members still await justice,"
said Narula. "The CCDP report demonstrates that
investigations into the abuses is possible, if the
political will exists to hold the perpetrators responsible."
Between 1984 and 1994, thousands of persons "disappeared"
and were believed illegally cremated in Punjab as
part of a brutal police crackdown to quash insurgency
in the state. Police counter-insurgency efforts included
torture, forced disappearances, and a bounty system
of cash rewards for the summary execution of suspected
Sikh militants. The campaign succeeded in eliminating
most of the major militant groups, and by early 1993,
the government claimed that normalcy had returned
to the state. Police abuses continued, however, and
there was no effort to account for hundreds of forced
disappearances and summary killings. Even though the
identity of the perpetrators is well documented, no
one has been successfully prosecuted by the state.
The CCDP report can be found at www.punjabjustice.org
|
