Apr
19
Seven 1984 victims receive compensation
April 19, 2006 | Comments Off on Seven 1984 victims receive compensation
On March 30, seven victims on the 1984 pogroms received supplementary compensation as ordered by the Supreme Court.
The East Singhbhum deputy commissioner today distributed cheques worth over Rs 7.74 lakh to the dependants of the riot victims.
Parminder Kaur of Mango was inconsolable while receiving a cheque of Rs 1.25 lakh from East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Nitin Madan Kulkarni, as part of the compensation to the victims of the 1984 Sikh riots.
After receiving the cheque, Parminder recounted the moment when her father (a trader in Mango) rushed to his house after sustaining serious injuries in his stomach.
The Indian government continues to improperly label the 1984 pogroms as riots, implying violence on both sides. The label of a “riot” not only mischaracterizes the massacre, but it also purposefully masks its most brutal dimensions, discussed in detail in ENSAAF’s report Twenty Years of Impunity:
(1) The targeting of a religious group for murder and extermination, as evidenced by:
a. Slogans calling for the death of all Sikhs;
b. Repeated attacks by gangs to ensure that all Sikhs were killed;
c. Direct targeting of Sikh property;
d. Destruction of symbols and structures of the Sikh faith; and
e. Perpetration of other crimes such as rape and sexual assault, beatings and physical attacks, looting and stealing, extortion, acts of humiliation such as stripping, and mutilation of corpses;
(2) Police participation and instigation of the murders, as well as manipulation of records and destruction of evidence precluding criminal accountability; and
(3) Organized and systematic implemention of the carnage, characterized by:
a. A systematic and uniform method of killing;
b. Public meetings the night before the initiation of the massacre where leaders distributed weapons and exhorted attendees to kill Sikhs;
c. Organized dissemination of rumors;
d. Effective identification of Sikhs through lists;
e. Organized transportation of gangs of assailants; and
f. Large-scale provision and distribution of weapons and kerosene.
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