London: The British government is covering up the full extent of Margaret Thatcher’s support for India’s crack down on Sikhs in 1984, a new report will say.
It will call for an independent public inquiry into the episode, including the 1984 Amritsar massacre in which thousands of Sikh pilgrims died.
Arms deals, SAS training and intelligence sharing are just some areas where Whitehall has not come clean, the report says. The report will be formally launched in Parliament on Wednesday 1st November.
David Cameron commissioned an in-house review by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood in January 2014 after it emerged that an SAS officer helped plan the attack on Amritsar.
The new report will say that Cameron’s in-house review was a “whitewash” and that an independent public inquiry is needed.
Sacrificing Sikhs – the need for an investigation, published by the Sikh Federation (UK) and written by the freelance journalist Phil Miller, has found that:
- More than half of Foreign Office files on India from 1984 have been censored in whole or in part, with civil servants centrally involved in the events of 1984 now blocking disclosures under the thirty year rule.
- Immediately after the SAS officer carried out his reconnaissance of Amritsar with an Indian special forces unit, Sikhs pulled out of peace talks claiming they had seen a commando unit move into the city. The negotiations never recovered, and ultimately led to the all-out-assault in June 1984.
- India requested British training and equipment for its police para-military units immediately after the SAS officer had advised on co-ordinating para-military units for an attack on Amritsar. The Foreign Office wanted to supply India with internal security equipment that it knew could be used to raid Amritsar.
- Sale of military equipment to India in the 1980s was of paramount importance with the UK government turning a blind eye to human rights – India was one of Britain’s top three purchasers of military equipment from 1981-1990, at times buying more British weapons than Saudi Arabia. Repressive measures against Sikhs were carried out in the UK to appease Indian government and secure arms deals.
- Significant co-operation between UK and Indian intelligence agencies developed after June 1984. Given that many Sikhs detained by Indian security services were tortured, such co-operation raises serious concerns that MI5 received information obtained through torture, or shared intelligence with Indian counter-parts who used torture.
Phil Miller, the freelance journalist who researched and wrote the report, said: “The government needs to finally come clean about Thatcher’s role in the Amritsar massacre and India’s wider crack down on Sikhs. Whitehall censorship of historic files is like an old boys club that prevents the public from ever knowing how taxpayer’s money was spent. This culture of secrecy around Britain’s special forces and intelligence agencies is undemocratic and unsustainable.”
“The research provides an insight into the UK government’s private account of the events before and after the 1984 Sikh Genocide and illustrates that under pressure from the Indian authorities the Thatcher government went much further than has ever been officially acknowledged.”
“This report casts serious doubts on the adequacy and integrity of the in-house Heywood review commissioned by Cameron. There has been a massive cover up and Parliament and the public have been disturbingly misled. An independent public inquiry to get to the truth is the only way forward.”
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On Disclosure of Top Secret British Documents showing UK hand in June 1984 attack on Sikhs: