reducedtoashes

VI
Reduced to Ashes
erosion of the confidence and authority of those who protect it?"
This rhetoric of morale and the national security is evidence of attempts to thwart
the process of accountability. In his foreword to a book titled Human Rights and the
Indian Armed Forces, Gill criticised the "systematic adoption of human rights litigation
as a weapon against agencies of the State by criminals and by violent groups
who themselves reject democracy and seek the overthrow of lawful and elected
government". According to him: "An overwhelming proportion of public interest
human rights litigation is today being initiated by front organizations of criminal
conglomerates and of virulent underground terrorist movements in a systematic
strategy to harass and paralyse security forces and the police." 3
In this context it is important to note what the El Salvador Commission on Truth
noted in the introduction of its 1993 report: "A situation of repeated criminal acts
may arise in which different individuals act within the same institution in unmistakably
similar ways independently of political ideology of the government and decision
makers. This gives reason to believe that the institutions may indeed commit
crimes, if clear-cut accusations are met with a cover-up by the institution to which
the accused belonged and the institution is slow to act when investigations reveal
who is responsible. In such circumstances, it is easy to succumb to the argument
that repeated crimes mean that the the institution is to blame." 4 Clearly it is necessary
to prosecute such individuals who formulated, planned and organised grave
human rights abuses in the name of national security. The Nuremberg Trial established
this principle internationally.
A public knowledge of the truth is therefore necessary not only to release the
victims from the past, it is also required for strengthening the legitimacy of the
healing process initiated by a new regime for augmenting society's commitment to
justice. Without acknowledgement of what has happened, the circle of impunity
and injustice cannot be broken and the impartiality and independence of the judicial
mechanisms -- trials and legal tribunals -- and the rule of law cannot be restored.
Justice is both a means of ensuring accountability for grave human rights abuses
and a preventive, deterrent mechanism.
Outline of the Report
Chapter One of the report, Jaswant Singh Khalra: A Martyr for Human Rights,
explains the origins of the CCDP's work and the early evidence of mass illegal
cremations. It gives a narrative history of Punjab and its human rights inspirations,
intertwining the family history of Jaswant Singh Khalra, and ends with the details
of his disappearance and the on-going trial of the accused officers.
Chapter Two of the report, Impunity by All Means: Rights and the Dead-Ends of
Law, gives a description of the extent and depth of impunity for these human rights
violations. The chapter provides an explanation of the need for a public discourse
3
4
Air Commodore Ran Vir Kumar & Group Captain B. P. Sharma, Human Rights and the Indian Armed
Forces: A Source Book, Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1998, pp. xiv - xv
Report of the Commission on Truth, El Salvador, 1993. The Commission on Truth the 1980-1991
Internal Armed Conflict in El Salvador collected information from 2,000 primary sources referring to
7000 victims and information from secondary sources referring to over 20,000 victims of extra judicial
killings, enforced disappearances, torture and hostage taking.
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