**MEMORANDUM HANDED TO 10 DOWNING STREET BY THE FSO**

[Nirvair S Khalsa]

[align=center:9f474817f2]BELOW IS THE MEMORANDUM THAT WAS HANDED TO '10 DOWNING STREET' BY THE 'FEDERATION OF SIKH ORGANISATIONS' (FSO)

**ATTACHED TO THIS POST IS THE PDF VERSION OF THIS MEMORANDUM IN ITS FULL VERSION**[/align:9f474817f2]

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[align=center:9f474817f2]Federation Of Sikh Organisations UK

106, East Park Road, Leicester LE5 4QB

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[align=left:9f474817f2]3rd June 2007[/align:9f474817f2]

The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair,

Prime Minister,

10 Downing Street,

London.

Dear Prime Minister,

[align=center:9f474817f2]UK Sikh Community calls on the British Government to act on the

23rd Anniversary of India's Military Attack on the Golden Temple, Amritsar.[/align:9f474817f2]

You will be aware, that despite the failure to date of the international community to respond to

the outrage of India's military assault on the Sikhs in Amritsar in June 1984, the UK's Sikh

community continues to commemorate those lives which were so tragically lost. In order to

suppress an exemplary movement for greater autonomy, the Indian army sealed off Punjab,

expelled the international media and used tanks and artillery to attack the centre of Sikhism,

killing thousands of pilgrims. That attack forced the Sikhs to struggle to secure independence in

order to protect their nation and homeland. India has resorted to committing genocide, carrying

out crimes against humanity and political suppression to crush that freedom movement.

Whereas these criminal acts of the Indian state have been condemned by international human

rights bodies it is now incumbent on the international community to instigate criminal

proceedings to hold India to account for the gross abuses it has carried out as a matter of state

policy. Once again, thousands of us have demonstrated here in London today in order to call for

that international action. We call upon you - even in your last days in office - to speak out against

these atrocities and back our demand for action. It is never too late to do the right thing and you

will hopefully be able to take this opportunity to do so.

An ethical foreign policy – once a proudly made claim of your Government – surely cannot be

evidenced by your Government's refusal to engage with British Sikhs in respect of this bloody

episode and their related humanitarian concerns. We attach copies of our Memoranda to you,

delivered to your official residence, on 1st June 2003, 6th June 2004, 12th June 2005 and 4th June

2006. None of these have received a substantive response. Britain's Sikhs are rightly offended by

this frankly dismissive attitude of your Government.

When copies of these documents were personally presented to the Foreign Secretary on 10th

November 2006, she was clearly embarrassed by this state of affairs. Her office has since

claimed that she mislaid the documents and so is unable to respond. Whilst there may be a

consequence for the Labour Party in those constituencies where Sikhs will use their franchise

wisely, it is clearly not in Britain's national interest to be so cavalier in dealings with a sizeable

and important minority community such as the Sikhs. It is perhaps not surprising that there is

such a discrepancy between Britain's foreign policy and the expectations of its citizens.

We do hope that your successor, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, will ensure that our concerns

and grievances are addressed. We are copying this letter to him and request that he arranges a

meeting between us and the relevant minister at the Foreign Office once his new ministerial team

takes over. Our concerns remain as set out in the attached copy Memoranda but we would make

specific mention of a number of key issues which we believe the British Government should take

up and which we would want to address at that meeting, including:

· Sikhs (even a British Sikh recently arrested and tortured in police custody in Punjab)

continue to face politically motivated persecution in India.

· Those who are guilty of the massive human rights abuses of the 1980s and 1990s against

the Sikhs (including the pogroms of November 1984 in Delhi and elsewhere) are

protected by the state, rather than punished for their crimes. It is almost a daily

occurrence that police atrocities are being exposed in Punjab (innocent people having

been killed and secretly cremated by police officers claiming rewards for eliminating

'militants'), yet the guilty officers remain in place and maintain the terror of those dark

days.

· Even today, Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture are denied

access to Punjab.

· Free speech is not respected – Sikh leaders who call for the Sikh Nation to be able to

freely exercise, in accordance with international law and using exclusively peaceful

means, its right of self-determination in the Sikh homeland are routinely arrested and

charged with sedition.

These are clear examples of abuses which can and should be raised as part of the dialogue with

India. A review of British Government policy concerning relations with India is needed. This, in

our submission, should be based on a clear link between Indian compliance with internationally

accepted standards of human rights and British Government aid and trade policies.

In addition, Britain should not support India's claim for a permanent seat on the UN Security

Council, whilst it oppresses nations such as the Sikhs, Kashmiris, Nagas, Assamese, Manipuris,

Bodos and others. These nations are now working together politically to defeat the imperialism

which has been imposed on them by the use of force, and at the cost of democratic legitimacy.

India has started and continues a nuclear arms race in South Asia. Neither its internal nor its

external actions merit a permanent seat and it is instead vital for the international community to

retain scope for the effective diplomatic and political pressure that will be lost by such a move.

Both Gordon Brown and you will also be aware that the Indo-Sikh conflict remains unresolved.

As the architect of the peace process in Ireland, we trust you recognise the need to address the

causes of the conflict, not just the manifestations of conflict. The underlying problem in Punjab

is that the Sikhs, as a nation, have been forcibly denied their right to self-determination. Some

200,000 Sikhs have been killed in India since 1984 in an attempt to crush a legitimate freedom

struggle. The Sikhs are a proud and determined nation; having freely determined, at its national

gathering (Sarbat Khalsa) in January 1986, to establish a sovereign Sikh state of Khalistan in

Punjab, it has been suppressed by force. No solution to the conflict can be secured without the

Sikh right to self-determination being recognised and respected. The UK Government should,

given its colonial responsibility for the region and its peoples, encourage India to comply with its

obligations under the1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which confirms

that self-determination is accepted as the bedrock of human rights.

We would, in addition to a formal acknowledgement of receipt of this Memorandum, welcome a

commitment from the UK Government to address the issues set out herein, issues that have been

seriously neglected over recent years. We also hope to hear from your successor so that we can

contribute more fully to a new and much needed dialogue over matters of great concern to UK

Sikhs.

Yours sincerely,

Gurmej Singh Gill

Balbir Singh

Amrik Singh Gill

Manmohan Singh Khalsa

Gurdev Singh Chohan

Avtar Singh

Amrik Singh Sahota, OBE

[align=center:9f474817f2](The representatives of the UK Sikh groups making up the Federation of Sikh Organisations, UK)

COORDINATORS and Correspondence Contacts:

Kuldip Singh and Joga Singh

c/o Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, 106, East Park Road, Leicester LE5 4QB[/align:9f474817f2]

cc Rt Hon Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Foreign Secretary.

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