Project84 Toronto & ENSAAF Present 1984 Human Rights Memorial Week

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release:
October 25, 2005

Project84 Toronto & ENSAAF Present 1984 Human Rights Memorial Week

(Toronto, Canada) From October 31, 2005 to November 6, 2005, Project84 Toronto & ENSAAF have organized seminars and memorial events to commemorate the victims of the November 1984 pogroms of Sikhs in India, as well as the tenth anniversary of the abduction and murder of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra by Indian security forces.

ENSAAF’s Executive Director Jaskaran Kaur and Legal Director Sukhman Dhami will discuss key projects recently completed by ENSAAF, as well as interview Canadians who survived torture and other human rights abuses in Punjab. In particular, ENSAAF will discuss the findings and implications of the recent expert medical report by Physicians for Human Rights and Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (www.ensaaf.org/PHR-Bellevue.html). This report was submitted in the Punjab mass cremations case proceeding before the Indian National Human Rights Commission and is based on a study organized in Amritsar, Punjab by ENSAAF. ENSAAF will also highlight its latest report on torture and illegal detention in Punjab in the context of an alleged revival of the militancy, Punjab Police: Fabricating Terrorism through Illegal Detention and Torture (www.ensaaf.org/ft-report.html).

The focus of the Memorial Week is the November 1984 pogroms and the sacrifice of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra. The latest inquiry on the November 1984 Sikh massacres, the Nanavati Commission, continues the tradition of exonerating the Congress party for its role in orchestrating the Sikh pogroms. The Nanavati Commission’s findings ignore the evidence provided by thousands of survivors and eyewitness to the massacres, who personally experienced the organized and deadly role of the Congress party and Delhi administration. Contrary to the conclusions of the numerous government commissions set-up to investigate the murders of thousands of Sikhs, ENSAAF’s report, 20 Years of Impunity, establishes that the Congress party was the primary architect and executor of the November 1984 Sikh massacres (http://www.ensaaf.org/20years.html).

Jaswant Singh Khalra traveled to Canada in 1995 to publicize his findings that Indian security forces had secretly cremated over three thousand persons from Punjab’s Amritsar district alone. Soon after his return, on September 6, 1995 security forces abducted Khalra from outside his home. Security forces then secretly detained and interrogated Khalra for over two months, and tortured him for days before shooting him dead around October 28, 1995. Despite eyewitnesses to Khalra’s abduction, detention, torture and murder, none of the officials responsible for his murder have been brought to justice.

As a part of the 1984 Human Rights Memorial Week, a seminar on human rights in India has been organized for Saturday November 5th at 12:30 PM at York University (Stedman Lecture Hall). In addition, a candle-light vigil will take place in Gage Park (Main Street and Wellington St, Brampton) on Saturday November 5th from 6:30 – 9:00 PM. Information on all events can be found at www.ensaaf.org/toronto.

ENSAAF (http://www.ensaaf.org), a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization fighting impunity in India, works to bring perpetrators to justice, investigates and exposes human rights violations, and organizes survivors to engage in advocacy. It is at the forefront of the struggle for the rights to knowledge, justice and reparation for victims of state abuses in Punjab. In addition to Jaskaran and Sukhman, ENSAAF’s board of directors includes: Alison A. Hillman, Mie Lewis, Peter Rosenblum, and Richard J. Wilson. ENSAAF means "justice" in many South Asian languages.

Please add this information to your listings. We are presently confirming interviews.

For further information, please contact:
Project84 Toronto, Inderpreet Singh
T: 416.831.3705,
E: toronto@ensaaf.org