Cheong Chun Yin, a Malaysian citizen sentenced to death in Singapore for a drug related offence.

Cheong Chun Yin

Cheong Chun Yin is a Malaysian citizen sentenced to death in Singapore for a drug related offence.

Chun Yin claimed that he was asked to bring gold bars into Singapore, and that he genuinely believed that that was so. He had no knowledge that the supposed gold bars were in fact drugs. It never occured to him that the gold bars had turned into drugs as he had been told over and over again that he was to bring in gold bars. Nothing happened along the way to suggest otherwise.

In his statement to the police investigating officer as well as his testimony in court, Chun Yin maintained his version of the story and he even provided all the information pertaining to the person who had convinced him and arranged for everything. His name is Lau De. Chun Yin gave the mobile number which Chun Yin used to call to the police, as well as his description and a chronology of all that happened.

However, the police “did not make adequate efforts to trace Lau De or check on his cell-phones”, as admitted by the Learned Trial Judge in his judgment.

Instead, the Learned Trial Judge convicted and sentenced him to death on the ground that: “ I did not find his testimony convincing and I was of the view that his evidence did not create any reasonable doubt that he might not have known that he was carrying heroin. It was immaterial that the CNB did not made adequate efforts to trace Lau De or check on his cell-phones. The absence of any trace of Lau De or Teng Mor was not taken as evidence in favour of or against either accused”.

We find the lack of effort by the relevant authority in tracing and tracking down Lau De very disturbing. We are even more disturbed by the fact that the Learned Trial Judge had acknowledged this lack of effort and think it “immaterial”.

Should the relevant authority have made such efforts, they would probably have traced the drug barons.

Should the relevant authority have made such efforts, they would have known that what Chun Yin testified in court was the truth.

The Court of Appeal, who dismissed Chun Yin’s appeal on 20.10.2010, did not, even till today, produce its grounds of judgment. Chun Yin will die without knowing the reason why.

In view of the irreversible nature of the death sentence, the Court must exercise the highest standard of care and proof in convicting the accused. With due respect, we do not see this standard in Chun Yin’s judgement.

Bearing in mind that a miscarriage of justice occurs even with the most careful and thorough investigation as to human is to err, what more with such a loose attitude demonstrated by the relevant authority as affirmed by the Judge.

This case illustrates exactly why the death penalty should not be imposed on such offences. A moratorium on execution must be imposed.

We, the undersign, urge and demand that the imminent execution of Chun Yin be stayed while the prosecution should re-open the case and all efforts be made to trace and track down the drug barons.

We also call for members of the public to write to the President of the Republic of Singapore to raise their concern with regards to Chun Yin’s case. The address is as follows:-

The Principal Private Secretary

To the President of the Republic of Singapore

The Istana,

Singapore.

Online petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/chunyin/petition.html

More information here:   http://givelife2ndchance.wordpress.com/ ,

Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Chun-Yin/137613729644101

Sources: Save Vui Kong Campaign Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall – Civil Rights Committee, Amnesty International- Malaysia, April 8, 2011

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Happy birthday, Yong Vui Kong!

Yong Vui Kong

2 years have passed since Sabahan Yong Vui Kong was sentenced to death by a Singapore court for a drug offence. As campaigns to save him continue relentlessly, he has turned to Buddhism, meditates and counsels other inmates and prison wardens.

Every day counts for Yong Vui Kong. Last Tuesday, he celebrated his 23rd birthday in prison in Singapore, a milestone for someone who has been facing the hangman’s noose over the last 2 years.

Vui Kong was sentenced to the gallows on Jan 7, 2009 for possession of 47.27g of heroin. Initially, he was to be executed on Dec 4 the same year. He petitioned for a judicial review of the rules that can potentially allow offenders like him to be spared the gallows, but it was turned down last year. He subsequently appealed the decision, and last Monday the republic’s Court of Appeal reserved its judgment.

Countless blogs have been set up in support of Vui Kong, and more than 22,300 people have signed in to the "Save Yong Vui Kong" Facebook group page.

Amnesty International Malaysia staged a play based on his life while Inter­national news station Al-Jazeera made a documentary about the visit of campaigners to Sandakan, his hometown.

In Singapore, a group of supporters commemorated his birthday with a song and a cake. For every day he is alive, it means hope for the clemency campaigners whose efforts have continued unabated.

So why did 109,346 people sign a petition (collected on the streets and not the Internet) asking the Singapore President for clemency? Why are people concerned about a young man they don’t even know, one whom detractors say is a criminal and should have known better than to smuggle drugs?

The Save Vui Kong Campaign coordinator Ngeow Chow Ying believes that Vui Kong’s plight has touched hearts because of his circumstances.

"I think it's his background and the fact that he has repented. I know people who support the death penalty for drug crimes but are sympathetic towards Vui Kong," she says.

Ngeow acknowledges that the group is sometimes misunderstood.

"We are not asking him to be let free. He has to take legal responsibility for what he did. We are asking for clemency," she stresses.

Kirsten Hans of the We Believe In Second Chances in Singapore says she and her fellow campaigners have been accused of neglecting the victims of drug abuse and their families.

"I've been called a criminal-hugger," she says.

For the record, Vui Kong was caught with heroin in June 2007, a crime that warrants a mandatory death sentence. He was barely 18 at the time. Because of his age, trial judge Justice Choo Han Teck asked the prosecution to consider reducing the charge against him.

The prosecution declined, and Vui Kong was given the mandatory death sentence.

A victim of circumstances

Vui Kong is the 6th in a family of 7 siblings. His parents were divorced when he was only three and as a result, his mother Liaw Yueng Kuan was forced to raise the family single-handedly. She earned a paltry RM220 monthly washing dishes at a hawker stall.

Because of the dire situation, only Vui Kong and his 2 elder brothers lived with their mother and reportedly abusive grandfather. The other siblings lived with relatives.

Of all the siblings, only Vui Kong's younger sister Yong Vui Fung, now 21, completed studies until secondary 5.

His elder brother Yun Leong, 26, a kitchen helper in Singapore, who visits Vui Kong every Monday in prison, says growing up was very tough because of the negative atmosphere.

According to him, his mother was always abused and beaten by their grandfather. The brothers, meanwhile, were forced to take care of their grandfather’s patch of oil palm, a laborious task.

Vui Kong dropped out of school when he was 11 and started working odd jobs, including washing cars for RM3 a day.

At one point, he stayed with a friend because his workplace was far from his home.

Because of his meagre salary, he decided to try his luck in Kuala Lumpur when he was 16, getting a job as a kitchen helper.

Vui Kong got into the "wrong company" and started selling pirated DVDs in Petaling Street, earning about RM1,000 monthly, says Yun Leong.

There he met a "big brother" who bought him meals in hotels and expensive clothes. Vui Kong then started debt collecting before delivering "special packages."

He did not know much about the law and the boss lied to him, telling him that peddling DVDs would earn him 7 years in jail while peddling drugs would only get him two years in prison, at the most, says Yun Leong. "He was a naive kid."

At that time, their mother was suffering from depression and Vui Kong was desperately looking for money to help her.

3 days before getting caught, Vui Kong flew to Sandakan to celebrate his mother’s birthday. In fact, his last wish before his slated execution in 2009 was to see his mother.

Until today, his mother does not know that Vui Kong is facing the death sentence. "He told her that he was going for a pilgrimage far away," says Yun Leong.

Onto the path of Buddha

It is learnt that Vui Kong has undergone a complete transformation since entering jail.

He has taken up Buddhism and spends a lot of time on prayer and meditation, waking up by 4am every day. He has also become a vegetarian and taken a new name, Nan Di Li, from the Buddhist Dharma.

"He is glad that he was caught because if not, he might still be doing bad things," says Yun Leong.

Vui Fung says she could not believe the change she saw in her brother when she met him in pri­son.

"He always had a good heart, although not necessarily good habits. I remember him always waking up late in the day," she recalls.

Vui Kong's lawyer M. Ravi, who has been working pro bono, says that when he first met Vui Kong, the latter could hardly speak a word of English and only spoke broken Malay and Hokkien. Now, 80% of their conversation is in English.

"Every time there is a legal submission, he would bring his dictionary along and scrutinise the submission. He would always ask why one word was used and not another," says Ravi.

He says Vui Kong's mother was impressed with her son when she saw him in December 2009.

"She was crying when she heard his Mandarin," says Ravi.

Similarly, Ngeow, who has been reading letters to his family, says that he started writing simple letters asking them how they were. But as time passed, the letters became more philosophical, with quotes from Buddhist teachings.

"His grammar has improved tremendously as well," she says, adding that 30 of these letters have been compiled into an e-book.

Vui Kong's compassion grew as well. He would save the biscuits he got in the morning and on the way to the library, he would distribute them to the other prisoners, says Ravi.

"He also counsels the other inmates and even prison wardens," he adds.

"Not a single prison warden can accept his execution. A prison guard told me that he is the gentlest soul he has ever met and they all have benefited from him."

Ravi considers Vui Kong to be an enlightened soul and is learning meditation from him.

"I feel recharged after seeing him," Ravi says.

Vui Kong also drew him a picture of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, often referred to as the Bodhi­sattva of the netherworld because of his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until "all the Hells are empty."

The drawing with a 4-coloured ballpoint pen took more than a month to complete.

"He would kneel down, meditate and draw the picture," says Ravi, adding that Vui Kong is talented in art.

Vui Kong is also thankful to all those who have been supporting his clemency appeal.

"I showed him a picture of Singaporean activists who rallied in the park in support of his cause. He took at least 30 minutes to look at the picture to know all the faces," Ravi says.

Vui Kong also wrote thank you letters to each person in the picture, including a 5-year-old girl, he adds.

Yun Leong says his brother will accept whatever happens and is not afraid of the noose.

"Vui Kong has accepted his fate because everyone will die anyway. He took the wrong path and is not afraid to accept the consequence of his actions. He just wants his life to have meaning," he says.

Yun Leong adds that his brother wants to join the anti-drug campaign and guide other youngsters towards the right path.

"He tells people not to take the easy way out and not to trust anyone blindly," he says.

Ngeow believes Vui Kong would make a good advocate for an anti-drug campaign.

"His story can inspire others not to make the same mistakes, and those in similar circumstances. If Vui Kong speaks to them, they would probably listen to him," she says.

Related website: 2ndchance4yong: http://2ndchance4yong.wordpress.com

Click here to sign the online clemency petition.

Source: The Star, January 23, 2011


URGENT APPEAL for Yong Vui Kong at imminent risk of execution in Singapore

Yong Vui Kong, a 23-year-old Malaysian man, has exhausted his appeals against a mandatory death sentence in Singapore. He is at immediate risk of execution unless the Malaysian authorities and others press Singapore's President to grant clemency.

On Monday 17 January, Singapore's Court of Appeal reserved judgment on Yong Vui Kong's case. His counsel had appealed for his execution to be stayed on the grounds that he had been denied a fair clemency process. In Singapore the decision for clemency rests with the President, on the advice of the Cabinet. In December 2009 the President rejected Yong Vui Kong's petition for clemency. Later that month, the High Court postponed the execution to allow the Court of Appeals time to hear an application for a stay. The refusal of the Court of Appeal to grant a stay has given a green light for Yong Vui Kong to be hanged.

Last July, Malaysian officials called on Singapore to spare Yong Vui Kong's life. Malaysia's foreign minister, Anifah Aman, announced, "I will be writing to the government of Singapore to plead for his clemency." Malaysian legislators have also called for clemency.

Yong Vui Kong was sentenced to death in January 2009 for trafficking 47 grams of diamorphine (heroin), a crime committed when he was 19 years old. Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act makes the death penalty mandatory for trafficking more than 30 grams of heroin, leaving judges no discretion to hand down alternative sentences.

Singapore's law also presumes trafficking in all cases involving the possession of over 2 grams of heroin, which shifts the burden of proving that no trafficking was involved from the prosecution to the defendant. This violates the core human right to be presumed innocent of a crime until proven guilty.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In a 2007 drug-trafficking case, Singapore executed a young Nigerian, Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi. UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Philip Alston, condemned the sentence on human rights grounds: "Singapore's decision to make the death penalty mandatory keeps judges from considering all of the factors relevant to determining whether a death sentence would be permissible in a capital case."

Amnesty International opposes the imposition of the death penalty in all circumstances and irrespective of claims of utility; the organization considers the death penalty a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

* Urging Singapore's President to reconsider Yong Vui Kong’s clemency petition and commute his death sentence, which was mandatorily imposed;
* Urging Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah to press Singaporean President Nathan to reconsider Yong Vui Kong's clemency petition and commute his death sentence;
* Reminding Malaysia Foreign Minister's Anifah of his commitment to call for clemency for Yong Vui Kong, a Malaysian who is also a native of Anifah's home state of Sabah.

APPEALS TO:

President
His Excellency SR Nathan
Office of the President
Orchard Road, Istana
SINGAPORE 0922
Fax: 011 65 6735 3135
Email: s_r_nathan@istana.gov.sg
Salutation: Your Excellency

Foreign Minister of Malaysia
His Excellency Datuk Seri Anifah Amam
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Wisma Putra
NO 1 Jalan Wisam Putra, Precinct 2
62602 Putrajuya, MALAYSIA
Fax: 011 60 3 8889 1717
Email: webmaster@kin.gov.my
Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

Editor-in-Chief
The Star
Menara Star
15 Jalan 16/11
46350 Petaling Jaya
SINGAPORE
Fax: 011 60 03 7955 4039
Email: editor@thestar.com.my

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Source: Amnesty International, January 24, 2011

Yong's Story

The case of a young Malaysian convicted for drug trafficking tests Singapore's capital punishment laws.

In Singapore anyone caught with more than 15 grams of heroin faces a mandatory death penalty. No extenuating circumstances can be taken into account by the legal system and this, argues the UN special rapporteur, is a violation of human rights.


Now, the conviction of one young Malaysian man, Yong Vui Kong, sentenced to death after being found guilty of heroin trafficking, is forcing Singaporean courts to re-examine the law. Madasamy Ravi, Yong's lawyer, is fighting to make legal history as he takes Yong's story to the Court of Appeal.


Already his client's death has been postponed twice. Meanwhile Yong's brother, Yun Leong, is preparing the family for the possibility that Yong will hang. As Yong languished on death row in Singapore's notorious Changi Prison, filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong spent time with his family and legal team, watching the unfolding case of Yong Vui Kong.


In the following account Lynn Lee shares her views on Yong's story and what it says about Singapore's legal system.

At first it was just a name. Yong Vui Kong. We first heard it in 2009, at a forum on the death penalty in Singapore. Yong Vui Kong. We were told he was a convicted drug mule from east Malaysia. He had been caught with more than 15 grams of heroin. He would most likely hang before the year was up. We shook our heads, made sympathetic noises. But really, it was just a name.

And then we saw him in person. A skinny kid in an oversized orange jumpsuit seated behind a glass enclosure, surrounded by prison guards. And the awfulness of his situation hit home.

This kid was going to die for a crime committed when he was just 19. He looked so helpless, frail almost, inside the sterile courtroom. It was hard not to feel sorry for him.

We were told he had converted to Buddhism, had vowed to be good. We were told he was holding out hope for a second chance. It was hard not to root for him.

Over the months, as Vui Kong's lawyer obtained one stay of execution after another, tens of thousands of people rallied to his cause. These were supporters who had never even seen him in person. They went out in force, collecting signatures in support of a petition for a second chance for the kid. They blogged, made banners, composed songs, organised protests and sent hundreds of messages to his family members. They amazed us with their commitment and energy.

But why? Why this particular death row inmate and not anyone else? Singapore regularly hangs people for drug trafficking. So what makes Yong Vui Kong so special?

Perhaps it is his personal story, the awfulness of his past. He grew up in extreme poverty, dropped out of school when he was just 11. He was barely literate when he was caught - a lowly cog in a shadowy syndicate. He was so very young. He is so very sorry now.

It is hard to overstate the significance of Yong Vui Kong's case. It has forced many in Singapore to think about the fairness of the mandatory death sentence.

The government has vigorously defended its stance, with the law minister himself questioning the cost of letting a drug mule like Vui Kong go. The Court of Appeal here has also held that the mandatory death sentence is not unconstitutional.

But still, the debate rages on, and we suspect, it will do so for some time to come.

In the meantime, the family continues to hold on to hope. No one expected in 2009, when Vui Kong's lawyer first walked into court requesting a stay of execution, that the kid would still be alive today in January 2011. But he is. And the story has drawn more attention than anyone thought possible. One of the reasons could be because of the numerous complex legal issues that the case has thrown up.

As Vui Kong's lawyer puts it, the battle is far from over. The judges have yet to release their decision on the latest challenge - a request for a judicial review of the law minister's statements and the president's powers.

For the family, it must be nerve-wracking, this ding-donging between hope and despair. Onlookers like us will perhaps never understand their anguish. But should the kid die, we too would be devastated. We would grieve not in the way the family would grieve. We would grieve because of what killing someone like Yong Vui Kong says about us, about the country we live in, about what we are willing to sacrifice, in exchange for our sense of security.

For more information about Yong Vui Kong read Lynn's blog.

Yong's Story can be seen on Al Jazeera from Tuesday, January 25, at the following times GMT: Tuesday: 2230; Wednesday: 0930; Thursday: 0330; Friday: 1630; Saturday: 2230; Sunday: 0930; Monday: 0330; Tuesday: 1630.

Source: Al Jazeera, January 25, 2011
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Support the Four Death Row Hunger Strikers in Ohio

On Jan. 3, four prisoners held in Ohio State Penitentiary, a super max prison, started a hunger strike to protest the highly restrictive conditions they have been subjected to since they were moved to the prison in 1998. These prisoners are Bomani Shakur aka Keith LaMar, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb and Namir Abdul Mateen aka James Were.

They all received death sentences as the result of wrongful convictions on charges related to the 1993 prison uprising in Lucasville, Ohio. Hasan and Robb helped negotiate the settlement of the Lucasville uprising, preventing a massacre such as the one in Attica in 1971 which resulted in more than forty deaths.

In his statement of his reasons for the hunger strike Bomani states, "..we have undergone penalty on top of penalty, kept from fully participating in our appeals, from touching our friends and families, denied adequate medical treatment.we who have been sentenced to death must be granted the exact same privileges as other death-sentenced prisoners." ..To see Bomani's complete statement, go to iacenter.org.

The four prisoners have been kept on the highest security designation, "Level 5" throughout their time at OSP. Their solitary confinement is conducted in such a way as to ensure no contact with other prisoners even during showering and "recreation". The doors to their cells are sealed to prevent sound transmission. During visits, they are shackled even while confined within a booth, separated from their visitor by bullet-proof glass, while other death-row prisoners can have contact with their visitors through an opening in the glass.

Please sign on to the online petition below to support the prisoners' right to have their security levels fairly evaluated and reclassified so that they may participate in the small privileges afforded to other death row prisoners. The harsh treatment of these prisoners violates their constitutional rights and is widely recognized as not only inhumane but as a form of torture.

The wrongful convictions which placed these men on death row must also be set aside. The charges must be dropped entirely or the men must receive new trials.

SIGN ONLINE AT http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/lucasvillehungerstrikepetition NOW!

Source: Texas Death Penalty Blog, January 5, 2011

Google Translate in Punjabi

It seems my little vacation has been cut short by events.  Two new posts today.  Both good news.

First, I have been looking for a way to translate this blog into Punjabi for nearly four years.  Now there might be a way.  It's a long shot, but then my being here typing this is statistically impossible and here I am.

Google has a really cool service called "Google Translate" which translates web pages from one language to another very quickly.  So now when I get a Spanish or German or even Chinese.  But not Punjabi.  This must be corrected!

There is currently a petition to get Punjabi covered by Google Translate.  Google has a reputation of listening to its users. It is totally nonpolitical.  All it says is:  

We would like 'Google Translate' to create a language Punjabi. All the signatures, are willing to use this feature, if created. 

Please sign it at:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/google-translate-in-punjabi/sign.html

KP- Gill movie

Here is the latest winner in the Sikhtoons Captioning Contest. It sort of says it all.

By now, everyone knows that a Bollywood blockbuster glorifying that murdering ******* KP- Gill is being made in India.

WE MUST STOP THIS MOVIE. The damage it could do to our community in incaluable. Please Ssign the petition below today. Immediately. And leave a polite but firm comment, please.

*Please read & sign the petition below - stop the Indian Government from
producing a film that shows Sikhs as terrorists.
*
The multi million dollar Bollywood industry has a wide appeal to the youth
especially in Punjab. To further misinform the youth about Operation Blue
Star.

The film will have popular actor Sanjay Dutt play the role of "supercop" KPS
Gill. In addition, popular movie star Amitabh Bachchan will play another
role as police man in this film.

Both popular actors will be depicting cops as the brave heroes while Sikhs
will be portrayed as extreme terrorist. However, it was the cops who were
cowards and Sikhs who were brave freedom fighters.

Further info on:

1.) http://www.panthic.org/news/131/ARTICLE/5080/2009-07-03.html

2.)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Munnabhai-chala-Khalistan/articleshow/4716055.cms

Sikhs have suffered inhumane torture, kidnappings, abuse, rape, murder and
barbaric treatment at the hands of the so called officers of the law in
Punjab.

****************************************************

Please Sign the petition at: http://www.gopetition.com/
petitions/ban-kps-gill-movie.html

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WHY TRY TO FIT IN? YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

We Will Never Forget

For a couple of years, I have been thinking about this twenty-fifth anniversary of the carnage of 1984. I have been fervently hoping that the Sikh community would wake up the world about the atrocities of that year in India, in fact the atrocities that seem to be a part of everyday life in that country, that legal fiction doomed ultimately to failure. I have been hoping we could awaken the masses of oppressed people especially in India and stir them to action. I have been looking forward to the chance of using this year as a springboard to accomplishment, a big step toward the establishment of our homeland from the rubble of what was India.

And I still am.

Imagine what we could accomplish if the various oppressed groups who cope with discrimination on a daily basis - the Dalits, the Tribals, the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindu Widows...I could go on and on...and, of course us Sikhs - imagine that we all worked together to end the injustices meted out to us by the corrupt Republic of India. It almost boggles the mind. India will disintegrate one day. The only question is, how will Bharata Mata fall? Will it be peaceful, as in the old Soviet Union, or will it be by horrible bloodshed as it was at the time of Partition when the Raj was divided and our Punjab was torn into two bloody pieces? Time will tell.

What I had not anticipated was the emotional toll that reliving, on a daily basis, the horrors of that time would have on me. Those events are so much a part of me, with me 24/7/365 that it is rather like being a woman; I am a woman, of course, it's always there, always a part of who I am, but I don't sit thinking about it all the time. I don't relive the oppression wrought upon my sisters throughout the ages, the oppression that continues even now, in both obvious and subtle ways. In the same way, I generally don't sit and relive all that happened. It's just there. Now, however, it has become very immediate to me. Looking at the old pictures, the candidacies of Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, remaking the pictures of the burnt Akal Takht, over and over, is taking its toll on me. I hope it doesn't show too much. And I most fervently hope that it will prove worth the effort and pain involved. I have great faith that the efforts of all of us survivors who have taken this burden on ourselves will be richly rewarded.

And now, yet another petition, an important one from the good folks at the 1984 Accountability Project. This one calls for a full international investigation into the role of that rascal rajiv gandhi as well as the culpability of the congress party in the slaughter of Sikhs in November 1984. If you care about the sacrifices of our shaheeds at that time, as well as the well-being of us survivors, please take a minute to sign this petition.

SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

http://www.nov1984.org/

The November 1984 Accountability Project seeks to obtain justice for the thousands of innocent Sikhs who were murdered, tortured, raped, beaten, and burnt alive during the massacres in Delhi and throughout India in November, 1984. During this carnage, Sikhs were burnt alive with petroleum in the streets, women were gang raped, some by police, and infants were put to death. To date, the people responsible for organizing this carnage are yet to be brought to justice.

We seek and an independent international inquiry into former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India and the immediate removal of Rajiv Gandhi's name from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.

Join the quest for justice. Sign the petition http://www.nov1984.org/petition/#Signdemanding justice for the victims of the 1984 pogroms.
November 1984 Accountability Petition Demands

• An independent international inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India and
• The immediate removal of the name of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.
  

"The blackened, stiff corpses lay against the walls… with their eyes open. The burn victims were Sikhs, identifiable only by the steel bracelets worn on their wrists."
(Washington Post, Nov. 3, 1984)

"Like being a Jew in Czarist Russia or Nazi Germany" Violence makes Sikhs fear for their future in India."
(New York Times, Nov. 11, 1984)

"When the history is written of the horrors that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the 32nd block of Trilokpuri Colony will be remembered as a place where civilization disintegrated."
(LA Times, Nov. 6, 1984)

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Petition

To: Justice Navanetham Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Cc: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India
Cc: President Barack Obama, United States of America
Cc: President Hans-Gert Pöttering, European Parliament
Cc: Louis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

Respected Justice Pillay,

We, the undersigned, call for

An independent international inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India

and the immediate removal of the name of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.

By conservative estimates, 4000 Sikhs were killed in the first week of November 1984 on the streets of India's capital. Organized armed groups, equipped with lists of Sikh households, overtook the city, as a curfew was imposed, and law enforcement was either absent or facilitated the atrocities.

These organized massacres followed the assassination of Rajiv's mother, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by two Sikh bodyguards, who were avenging the attacks against Sikh shrines in June, 1984. On June 4, 1984, a major Sikh religious holiday, Indira Gandhi had ordered Indian troops to storm the holiest of the Sikh gurdwaras, Darbar Sahib, and 31 other gurdwaras, resulting in the brutal deaths of thousands of innocent pilgrims.

Rajiv had been sworn-in as the new Prime Minister immediately after the assassination, and very soon thereafter, the carnage against Sikhs ensued. For four days following this, Sikhs were killed with complete impunity in New Delhi under express orders from many prominent politicians such as H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, and Jagdish Tytler – of Rajiv's political party.

In the April 26^th, 2009 edition of the Indian Express, an eye-witness quotes Tytler as telling a crowd, "I had assured you that you kill Sikhs and nothing will happen to you. I had given a promise to the Centre. Despite this, by killing least number of Sikhs, you have lowered my prestige." This on-the-spot involvement of high ranking party members, and inaction and worse on the part of the police, complete with names of perpetrators in many cases, was first documented by a group of human rights activists (all non-Sikh) in the report, "Who Are the Guilty?," within a month of this massacre.

Shortly afterwards, Rajiv commented at a rally, "But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little." Not only that, Rajiv promoted politician Bhagat to the rank of cabinet minister, and rewarded Tytler with an appointment as minister of state. The assiduous efforts made ever since then by the Indian state to shield the guilty of 1984 are now fully documented in the book, "When a Tree Shook Delhi," by Manoj Mitta and H. S. Phoolka. We submit that such an extensive and intensive cover-up, which still continues as the Indian Express article of April 26, 2009 cited above clearly shows, would have been impossible to initiate, and sustain for so long, unless Rajiv was deeply implicated in these mass murders from the very beginning.

International criminal law recognizes the primacy of holding the one with the maximum responsibility most guilty in order to break cycles of impunity. "Command responsibility" holds a superior legally responsible for human rights violations by subordinates if the official knew or should have known about these violations but failed to prevent them or punish those who committed them.

We therefore call for an inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party's responsibility for the November 1984 massacres. The dozen odd kangaroo courts and commissions set up by the Indian government over the past 25 years have served to do nothing more than insult the intelligence of the Sikh community in general, and the surviving relatives of the victims in particular, who still continue to suffer due to the carnage that was unleashed on the streets of Delhi. This partisan record of Indian courts and the inaction by the government in the past 25 years necessitates that such an inquiry be held by an international body, one that is acceptable to Sikhs world-wide.

We also call for the immediate removal of Rajiv Gandhi's name from all buildings, awards, monuments, etc. This rampant and tasteless glorification of a very doubtful political character is a constant daily re-victimization of the Sikhs, and a reminder to them of the justice that has almost totally eluded them so far.

That "history repeats itself" couldn't be more true than in the parallel between the Sikh massacres of 1984 under the Congress party leadership and the Muslim massacres of 2002 under the Bhartiya Janta Party leadership. Narendra Modi should similarly be indicted and tried for his instigation and planning of ostensible pogroms that left thousands of Muslims dead. We call for justice to all, regardless of which Indian party is in control, and regardless of the faith or class of the victims.

Rajiv Gandhi's heirs are deluding themselves if they think that they can make the Sikhs forget the facts about 1984. At the very least, they should have desisted from naming even small-town parks in the Punjab after him. Unless their objective in so doing was not to let the Sikhs forget 1984? For, they are only succeeding in constantly reminding the Sikhs of their humiliation, by confronting them, day in and day out, with the name, and often the picture, of the person whom the Sikhs hold the most culpable.