’ 84 riots: Sikh rights group to approach Obama
Thursday, 29/11/2012
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
MOGA: Human rights group Sikhs For Justice ( SFJ) will file a petition before US President Barack Obama on December 15, urging the Obama administration to recognise the 1984 anti- Sikh riots as a genocide, SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Si ngh Pannun said on Wednesday.
The petition will be moved as per the right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, Pannun said.
He said t he petiti on had already gone viral among the Sikh diaspora in the US as it had been signed by more than 11,500 people since its launching. The online petition created on the White House official website requires 25,000 signatures by December 15 to warrant a response from Obama.
The petition urges the Obama administration to fulfil its obligation under Article 1 of the UN Convention on genocide by recognising the 1984 riots as a ‘ Sikh genocide’, he added.
The petiti on argues t hat the intentional and deliberate nature of the attacks on Sikh lives, properties and places of worship during November 1984 makes them the crime of genocide, Pannun said.
All India Sikh Students Federation president Karnail Singh Peermohammad said asignature c a mpaign had already been launched in Punjab and Delhi, adding that signatures were being obtained and would soon be sent to New York to the SFJ.
