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Punjab
Police ‘CATS’ to be tracked
LONDON: On the 23rd anniversary of the
anti-Sikh pogroms of November 1984 the Sikh Federation (UK),
working with leading Sikh organisations in the USA, Canada,
Australia and other parts of Europe has started work on the setting
up of a database of wanted human rights violators.
At the lobby in the UK Parliament this week the Federation pledged
that in the first 12 months relevant information and witness
statements are to be collected for up to 500 Indian politicians,
police officers, army personnel and police ‘cats’. Those that will
be identified will be those involved in torture, genocide and crimes
against humanity and police ‘cats’ that were used by the police to
kill innocent people to both discredit the Sikh freedom movement and
justify extrajudicial killings by the Indian authorities.
A coalition of Sikh lawyers from the UK, USA, Canada and other
countries will be tasked with analysing the evidence collected and
select cases where prosecutions may be an option. At the lobby in
the UK Parliament it was suggested by Brad Adams, the Asia Director
at Human Rights Watch, that the level of proof required to
successfully prosecute individuals from India when they travel
abroad would require considerable evidence and resources.
It was suggested by leading politicians, several ex-Ministers, that
the strategy should involve diplomatic pressure on the Indian
Government to put its own house in order with respect to human
rights violations by governments in the UK and the rest of Europe.
This could be combined with the second element of the strategy.
Namely, in the first 12 months to provide Governments across the
globe with details of 500 Indian politicians, police officers,
police ‘cats’ and army personnel involved in torture, genocide and
crimes against humanity, that could be used to prevent those
individuals leaving in India that which was likely to prove the most
effective.
Human Rights Watch has agreed to work with the Sikh Federation (UK)
to assist with providing guidance on the type of information that
should be collected for both prosecutions and to provide to
governments so the 500 to be targeted can be successfully excluded
from Europe and other parts of the world. Amnesty International and
other leading human rights groups are being approached to assist
with this process.
It is hoped that a number of Indian politicians and hundreds of
police officers, army personnel and police ‘cats’ will either be
prevented from travelling abroad or will fear that if they travel
abroad they could face the prospect of arrest, prosecution and
imprisonment when they leave India. In a letter by a Home Office
Minister, received on the eve of the Sikh lobby by Rob Marris MP,
the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for UK Sikhs, it was
confirmed that certain inviduals involved in torture and other human
rights violations could either be excluded from entering the UK or
could asked be asked to leave if they have entered.
7 November, 2007
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