Joannah Stutchbury: She Lived for Her Forest

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New Delhi – They cold-bloodedly killed my friend Joannah Stutchbury, a visionary, environmentalist and permaculture enthusiast. She was 67. Joannah was the great-niece of Jim Corbett, and felt a connection with India. On July 15, 2021, she was ambushed and shot dead just outside her home near Windsor Country Club, Kiambu, Kenya. Why was Joannah killed? Because she was resisting destruction of a forest in her area and refused to sell her forested land to developers. Her only fault was that she wasn’t greedy, she valued her environment more than money or material comforts.

President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta’s statement mentioned her as “a steadfast champion for the conservation of our environment.” He also said that she will be remembered for her efforts to protect the Kiambu forest from encroachment.

According to some data available online, Kenya has a forest cover of approximately 4,200,000 hectares, which is about 7.4% of the total land area of the country. The country loses approximately 5000 hectares of forest cover per year, primarily due to human activities and so-called development. In our conversations, Joannah sometimes vented out her frustration about the menacingly destructive forces (local and international) active in her area. But she wasn’t afraid of voicing her protest despite imminent threats to her life.

Joannah protesting in Kiambu forest

In February 2018, Joannah was very frustrated with all the persisting struggles and helplessness. In one of our conversations I was trying to cheer her up. I wrote, “…if you feel like, you can shift to India. I know you are a fighter, but still, your own safety is important.” Joannah replied, “Thanks Subodh! It is pretty crazy. These guys are ruthless thugs.” When I requested her to shift to some safer place, she wrote, “yes, for the first time in 55 years of living in Africa I have considered this!!!” But she loved her forest, she adored her environment so much that she never fostered this idea.

Joannah loved to travel to far and unknown places. She used to fondly remember her visit to India, and wanted another trip as soon as possible. She was considering a trip to Ladakh in 2019, which didn’t materialize due to some personal constraints.

Recently someone apprised me that Joannah owned a big land in Kiambu, worth a fortune. She never boasted of her property, nor did she try to monetize it. During the pandemic lockdown we were discussing the hardships and she mentioned that her business and income had suffered a lot. But even then, selling the forested land was a big NO for her. She lived for her forest, she died for her forest.

Pakistan has been the lifeline for the Khalistani movement since it began 50 years ago

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Global Strat View spoke with the veteran Canadian journalist Terry Milewski about his book, Blood for Blood: 50 Years of the Global Khalistan Project.

GSV Initially the Canadian government treated the Air India bombing as an Indian tragedy, with the then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney speaking to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to condole “India’s loss”. It was not until 2005 that Canada declared the anniversary of the bombing a national day of mourning. Observing the 20th anniversary of the bombing, Prime Minister Paul Martin acknowledged, “Make no mistake: The flight may have been Air India’s, it may have taken place off the coast of Ireland, but this is a Canadian tragedy.” Do you feel that Canada initially treating this as an Indian tragedy affected what happened to the case many years later?

TM Yes I think it had a lot to do with it. I think at the outset the reaction of Canadian officials was two-fold. First, it’s a foreign aircraft, it’s an Indian aircraft. And they thought of most of the people on board as Indians. Actually most of them were Canadian citizens. Roughly 280 of them, out of 329 were Canadian, of Indian descent to be sure, but they were Canadians. Secondly, Canadian officials wanted to avoid any liability. Their thoughts went immediately not to the victims’ families, but for how the government could get off the hook for letting this happen. At first, amazingly enough, the Canadian government even argued that you couldn’t prove that there was even a bomb. Maybe it was some freak accident. So don’t blame Canada. That argument, of course, turned out to be nonsense. And the Canadian government denied any forewarning, any signs that such a thing was going to happen, but in fact it turned out that there were a whole lot of warnings. There were abundant, timely and specific warnings, which were ignored in sort of an alphabet soup of police and security agencies who didn’t work together, dropped the ball, kept secrets from each other. So yes, this certainly affected the response. And it took a very long time, far too long, for the government to accept, as you noted, that it was a Canadian tragedy.

GSV You talk about the ferocious religiosity of Khalistanis in the 80s and 90s, who marked Hindus for death because of their religion. Sikhs who weren’t devout enough faced the same fate. I’m reminded of one particular session of the Air India hearing in Vancouver describing an incident that took place in the Ross St Gurdwara. A Sikh woman brought her son to the gurdwara to buy him a kara, the plain bracelet that is worn by Sikhs, because they were traveling to India and she wanted him to wear one because he would be meeting his grandparents and other relatives. That woman and her son, both died on Air India flight 182. I don’t remember now who it was that commented that they deserved to die, because they were not true Sikhs and were just following Sikh customs for appearances. That was terrifying to hear for all of us who were listening. Tell me a bit more about this.

TM It certainly was evident, that Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the father figure of the Khalistan movement, wasn’t much of a Khalistani himself. He wasn’t campaigning for Khalistan. He was campaigning, in fact, for a more rigorous, puritan form of Sikhism. He railed more about smoking and drinking than he did about Khalistan. And people who tried to engage him in political discussions, to try to get him to lead a more overtly Khalistan movement, generally failed. The incident that you mentioned, is another example of this religiosity. The testimony you are referring to was actually about one of the accused at the Air India trial, Ripudaman Singh Malik, alleged to have paid for the bombing. A wealthy businessman. He was alleged to have said, look, these weren’t real Sikhs. Here’s an example. This woman was only buying a bracelet to make sure that the grandparents weren’t upset. They weren’t really dyed in the wool Sikhs. Nor was he, by the way, when he first came to Canada. He got religion, as it were, after he came to Canada. There are many other examples of the rampage of Khalistani terrorists inside Punjab, where if you put a foot wrong, it doesn’t matter if you were yourself a Sikh. You were also a candidate to be wiped out, or machine gunned, or bombed in public places, or in a bus. And that is one of the reasons why most of the victims in the Khalistani insurgency in the 80s and 90s were Sikhs. They included for example Sikh policemen, who were fighting to preserve order in the state. And members of their families, murdered by the dozen, by the hundreds, in order to discourage people from joining the police. And KPS Gill, the Sikh policeman, who effectively conquered that insurgency in the early 90s, by the end of ‘93 say, he noted – having counted all the bodies – from the figures, from every police station all over Punjab. He counted 21,000 victims, of which 60 percent were Sikhs.

GSV And Bhindranwale, as you write in your book, chided Ujjal Dosanjh for cutting his hair as well.

TM Dosanjh was one of those who did try to engage Bhindranwale in political conversation. Visiting with his children to show them the old country. From Canada. He was a clean shaven, educated lawyer. Went to the Golden temple with his three sons, who were asking him, Dad, why do these men have weapons in a holy place? You told us the Golden Temple was the holiest place of the Sikhs, and there are men going around with AK-47s. So what’s that about? And their father said, well that’s a good question. And he challenged Bhindranwale at his daily open house, if you will, and in front of the assembled congregation, tried to get him to talk about what were his political views, what were his political ambitions. And Bhindranwale didn’t want to engage. He was more interested in the fact that Dosanjh had cut his hair. And he said that made Dosanjh a bastard, and he threatened to cut Dosanjh’s throat. Pointing to the armed men around him, you know we could cut your throat for that. So cutting throats was ok, but cutting hair was not. So that gives you a flavor for how this religious fanaticism had a lot to do with it. I don’t say that it had everything to do with it. There were indeed Khalistanis who didn’t have this additional affliction. But it was certainly, at the root of the struggle, there’s no question that this was an anti-Hindu movement. To get back at the Hindus, to get revenge at the Hindus. As one of the accused at the Air India trial put it in his speech, in 1984, at the height of the troubles, in New York, the founding convention of the World Sikh Organization – Until we kill 50,000 Hindus we will not rest.

GSV You write in your book that the curse of Khalistan doesn’t have a favorite party, it dooms them all. Even today, Talwindar Singh Parmar’s image is proudly displayed in the Dashmesh Darbar gurdwara in Surrey. Let’s talk about what happened with the 2018 Public report on the terrorism threat to Canada.

TM That’s an embarrassing episode for one party, particularly the party that was in power, but similar episodes happened with the other party. It’s not a left and right thing, it’s not a liberal conservative thing. They all do it. They all pander to the Khalistanis. And that’s one reason why they don’t point the finger and react when the others do it. Because they have no standing to do that. Everybody does it and they all know it. So they don’t criticize each other for it. Which is another reason why it continues, and what I mean by it, is this pandering whereby Khalistanis in Canada, keeping the flame of the cause of independence alive, are very well organized, and diligent about developing their political influence by helping out aspiring politicians at election time. They say look, we’ve got our agenda. And we want you to help us, and in return, we’re well enough organized that we can bring you thousands of votes. What do you say? And the politicians say, bring it on. I’m your friend. I will look the other way when we go to the Vaisakhi parade, and posters of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the leader of the Air India bomb plot, and thereby, Canada’s worst ever mass murderer, are paraded in the Vaisakhi parade and garlanded with gold tinsel. Making him out to be a hero, a model to Sikh youth, a martyr of the Sikh nation. This man butchered 300 completely innocent civilians who had nothing to do with any actions by the Indian government against the Sikhs or anything like that. He didn’t care who he was killing. There were more than 30 Sikhs on the plane. More Sikhs dying in this supposedly holy cause for the Sikhs. So the fact that all the parties benefit and play footsie with the Khalistanis, at election time, means as I say that they tend not to criticize each other for doing that. Which means that the whole thing goes on. Nobody objects. So that when something happens like the World Sikh Organization led a lobbying campaign to edit the public safety terrorism report, which you mentioned, to take out the threat, to edit out the threat of Khalistani terrorism, then the politicians say oh well we want to keep in the WSO’s good graces. We want to please them in the hope that they’ll help us again in the next election. So yeah, they’ll take it out, edit it. And score 1 for the WSO. They succeeded. Political influence works. And they’re very good at keeping it.

GSV This is the political spinelessness that Ujjal Dosanjh refers to when he says, “We are on the way to becoming a nation of panderers and politically correct people, and that’s almost spineless.” And he himself has been a very successful politician and never needed the support of these groups as you have pointed out. Politicians can take a stand, it won’t affect them getting elected.

TM Yes, that’s true and it’s a very important point that, for all that I just said, there is this you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours arrangement between the Khalistani lobby in Canada and the various political parties. It’s not really based on reality, because if you examine the record, you will find that the Sikhs don’t go out and vote for the overwhelmingly pro-Khalistani candidate. Because most Sikhs want nothing to do with the WSO. The vast majority are not interested in these old country politics. That’s one reason they live in Canada. They are done with all of that. It’s a bad memory. Remember that in Punjab, their homeland, it’s a really bad memory. Those 21,000 dead were their uncles, cousins, and aunts, sons, wives and daughters. If you look at the record, and you mentioned Dosanjh, probably the most successful Sikh politician of his generation in Canada. Always, since he first came to Canada, clean shaven, secular, but still a Sikh. His father was a Sikh, his grandfather spent years in British jails fighting for independence. Pretty good Sikh pedigree if you want to put it that way. He was elected, and re-elected for 20 years in Canada, both provincially, rising to the post of Premier of British Columbia. And federally, rising to the post of Minister of Federal Health in the Paul Martin government. Despite the fact, and he did this openly, and many didn’t have his guts to put it bluntly. Despite the fact that he openly condemned the violence, and went against a very threatening small minority of Sikhs who wanted to pursue a violent course of action in their fight against India. And who threatened his family with death repeatedly, hounded them, left messages on their answering machine – We’ll kidnap your wife, we’ll kill your children. And he carried on. And he was re-elected every time, which tells you something. His riding of course was heavily Sikh population. Vancouver South was his riding when he ran federally. So you can’t tell me that what he was doing was somehow anti-Sikh. It was anti a small minority Khalistani Sikh. And that’s a key point we may get to if you like. It’s often as though when you take on that small minority, they always complain that you’re anti-Sikh. It’s like if I say I condemn white supremacy, and they say you shouldn’t say that because it’s against all whites. No it isn’t, it’s against white supremacy. But that is the nonsense you encounter, and even Dosanjh himself a Sikh encountered when criticizing a small minority. They pretend that the entire Sikh community identifies with them. And I thank you for raising the point. In Dosanjh’s case and many others, it turns out that’s not true.

GSV In your book you write, “Sikhs were not aliens in India. They weren’t before partition, and they aren’t now.” In a recent Pew Research Center Report on survey of religion in India, 95% of Sikhs said they are very proud to be Indian and 70% said a person who disrespects India can’t be a Sikh. In such a scenario, what makes the Khalistani idea still survive amongst the diaspora in the West- especially in Canada, UK and US?

TM It is a puzzling question. And I wish I had better answers for you. It’s true that enormous majorities in India reject the Khalistan movement. You may recall there is a section in my book where I discuss voting results. The outcome is microscopic, in terms of their share of the vote, for 30 years. Last time out they got 0.3 percent, so not quite one third of one percent. It’s absolutely as close to zero as you can get. In fact, none of the above got a higher vote total than the separatists did. So why does it survive in the diaspora, well that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a small minority, and the evidence is that it is a small minority. Just that that small minority is organized, they are smart about the media and politics as we’ve already discussed. And their memory of India, since many of them were banned for many years from visiting India, they didn’t realize, they weren’t familiar with what India is like. And India has grown up, they’ve had a Sikh president, they had, the last Prime Minister was a Sikh. For 10 years. A Sikh of great distinction, Manmohan Singh. So I think that the isolation outside India of the diaspora to some degree accounts for the survival of the Khalistani idea in the diaspora. They’re not really clued in to what it is like in India, where millions voted for example for Captain Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister of Punjab. A fervently anti-separatist Sikh. And finally I should say that this small minority is self-selected. The diaspora is self-selected. They didn’t want to live in India. So naturally the people who are not in favor of India tend to be greater in number in the diaspora, proportionately, than they are in India. As I say, I wish I had better answers as to why it survives. But we’ve already discussed the principal one which is the tolerance and pandering of mainstream political parties. They can prosper in that environment where the Sikh majority is not involved in politics. They are doing the same thing as the rest of us, they are trying to get to work on time, raise their children, and so on. Where that is the case, and it is the case in Canada, the UK, the US, Germany – wherever there is a large proportion of Sikh immigrants. They simply opt out of politics, and that leaves the field clear for those who wish to manipulate.

GSV As you said, it is a small minority that supports this movement. They moved away for a reason, so if they want Khalistan, I don’t see the diaspora moving back.

TM You’re right. The cause is dead. You know, this is interesting history, but the cause is dead. Well, not exactly. Bear in mind there is a very active lobby group that is trying to organize a referendum. They are very vocal on Sikh independence, they are very active on social media. They organize rallies and protests, and they vilify the Indian government, and they talk about 1984, what they call the Sikh genocide, the massacre of Sikhs, the inexcusable massacre of Sikhs that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. So they keep it up, but in addition, there have – in the past two-three years – been some half a dozen killings, actual murders, inside Punjab, which the police suspect have a Canadian angle, meaning that money was paid, money was raised to pay the killers in Punjab. And money was raised in Canada. So far I haven’t seen indictments, in one case, directly attributing crimes in India to Canadian personalities, or to Canadian money. But there does seem to be evidence in a number of cases, so many in fact that when Mr. Justice Patel of the Delhi high court had to rule on the government’s ban, on this group Sikhs for Justice which was campaigning for a referendum, he cited a number of actual criminal cases which the government was able to show which were brought against people who seemed to have contacts outside the country and notably in Canada.

GSV The Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) have aligned themselves with China and Pakistan against India. You’ve reported in your book that they sent a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, they also sent a letter to China’s leadership saying that we are with you against India. That we support you. The SFJ website is banned in India. In fact, one of the interviews that the late Tejinder Singh (founder and editor of India America Today), did with Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was banned on YouTube by the Indian government. But you published their proposed map of Khalistan in your book, which includes much of India but not an inch of Pakistan, which is surprising as many areas of importance to Sikhism are in Pakistan such as Nankana Sahib – the birthplace of Guru Nanak – and Kartarpur Sahib. Let’s talk about that a little bit.

TM Well it is a puzzle, it’s extremely hard to explain except for the fact, and it is a fact, that Pakistan has been the lifeline for the Khalistani movement since it began 50 years ago. Even when Khalistan was just an idea in the mind of Jagjit Singh Chauhan, living in London in 1971, and hearing from the then Pakistani leadership that we need to get back at India for the Bangladesh war for 1971 we need to get our revenge for our defeat, at the hands of India, so we’d like to tear off a piece of India just as Bangladesh was torn off and became no longer east Pakistan, but an independent country. So we’ll help the Khalistan movement. It is extremely revealing, it’s not just puzzling is it, it’s extremely revealing that with all of the places, and you’ve mentioned a few, in Lahore, was the capital of the Sikh empire 200 years ago under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A legendary figure, not just in Sikh history but in Indian history. Kept the British at bay better than a lot of others for his entire reign. It was only after he died that the Sikh empire was slowly absorbed into the British empire. But that’s ancient history. How do you explain now, today, that with all of that Pakistani Punjab history, how come the Khalistanis do not claim one inch of Pakistani territory? Because they are very free with the territory they claim on the Indian side, saying they are going to end “India’s illegal occupation of Punjab”. But not Pakistan. So why is that? Well, it’s very hard to explain unless you admit that they can’t do without Pakistani support. They simply can’t trespass on the generosity, they can’t presume upon the generosity of Pakistan, without jeopardizing, the only country that has sustained the Khalistan movement for all of these five decades.

GSV And for people who claim to be supporters of Sikhism, they don’t protest against the treatment of Sikhs in Pakistan, the abduction of young girls, forced conversions, and attacks on gurdwaras. You don’t hear anything about that from them.

TM And that’s very puzzling too, you’re right to bring that up. Remember that at the time of partition, in Punjab as a whole, there were about two million Sikhs resident there. Now in Pakistan it is down to a few thousand. Well, why? What happened to them? Answer, they’ve been driven out by the abuses against all religious minorities in Pakistan. You speak for example of forced conversions, abductions of Sikh girls. There have been something like 55 or 60 cases over the last couple of years. And then if Sikh families try to get their girls back, there have been attacks on gurdwaras. Even Ranjit Singh’s statue has been defaced. It’s only been up for two years and it has been defaced twice already. People took a hammer to it and knocked his arm off. I mean he was a heroic figure in the history of the entire region. So I think that this only adds to the case, it becomes more than a suspicion at this point, that Pakistan is playing, as it always has, a crucial role in providing safe haven for the Khalistani movement. Places where they can train, hide out, get medical care, and muster and then smuggle across the border into Punjab. Been happening since 1971.

GSV In your book you write “Western governments were not keen to take sides in India’s internal battle.” The arrest of Jagtar Singh Johal from Scotland in India in 2017 for several targeted killings in Punjab shows the continuing danger for India of the Western indifference for Khalistani supporters active in their backyard. What is your advice for India- what should it do to educate the world on the dangers of this approach?

TM The Indian government has not scored a great success in the propaganda war over this. They have been unable over many years to convince western governments to be more proactive, more aggressive, packing down on the Khalistani movement. In part because they always had very weak answers on the difficult questions they faced in reply. Take 1984 for example. An enormously sensitive subject for the Sikhs, because of the massacre that we mentioned after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Well, did the Indian government have a good answer? No they did not, because for decades, decades went by when the cover up continued. Did the Congress party come forward and say yes, we admit, we will confront the members of our party who encouraged, winked at, aided or were complicit in those massacres? I didn’t hear that, did you? Nobody heard that. They kept up the cover up. The police likewise. Pains anyone to say, the police were standing by and letting it happen in many cases. And they too were complicit, and they too, they covered up for each other. So when the Sikhs reasonably raised this as an example of government oppression, and discrimination against Sikhs, guess what? They were right. And so it has only been in recent years that this long denied, long delayed justice has started far too late to be realized. Now Sajjan Kumar I believe is still in jail, he’s an old man now of course. Justice came very late and insufficiently. It’s only been in recent years that Manmohan Singh, a Sikh Prime Minister, was the first to stand up and on behalf of the nation and apologize, as qualified as the apology may have been, but still it was something, better than nothing you have to admit. For that reason and among many others, the Indian government, well, they could only really step up themselves and say look, the killings by Sikh terrorists are intolerable and disgraceful if they admitted that the killings by Hindu mobs were also intolerable and disgraceful. And what have they got. And now they have a situation where SFJ routinely refer to the massacres as Sikh genocide, and almost nobody knows about the 21, 000 killed in Punjab. Much greater numbers of Sikhs and Hindus murdered in Punjab. All of those Sikh policemen and all of those Sikh policeman’s families, and they Hindus dragged off buses and machine gunned in the ditch. People don’t know about that. The Sikhs frankly have done a better job at propaganda, making their case. Because they were handicapped, the Indian government was unable to make that case. Because they didn’t want to talk about the massacres. Well, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be silent about one massacre and make a fuss about the other. It’s got to be both, and it’s only now that really the Indian government has admitted all of that and confronted all of that. That would have made it more persuasive in previous decades if they’d said that look, to western governments, we admit the errors of the Congress party and the police. And we’re going to put people in jail about it. We’re going to pursue them aggressively in court. We’re going to do something about it. Then fairness would have required, then western governments would say that now we’re going to listen to you.

GSV After your report “Khalistan: a project of Pakistan “ came out last year, there were reports of ‘50 Sikh scholars’ asking the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to retract the report. The names interestingly included those of supporters of Kashmiri separatism like Dr Hafsa Kanjwal and Dr Idrisa Pandit. Do you think there has been an active effort to link the Khalistani project with Kashmiri separatism from India over the years, and how far has it succeeded?

TM Yes there certainly has been on the Pakistani side. Going back to, you may have noticed in the book, I discuss in some details, about Talwinder Singh Parmar, the founder of the Babbar Khalsa in British Columbia and the leader of the Air India bomb plot. And it was notable that he died in the company of five other gunmen, two of whom were Pakistani agents. One Kashmiri. And in the files of the investigation you will find detailed evidence of the close links, common training, common strategy between Khalistani militants and Kashmiri militants. It’s the so called K2 strategy: we’re stronger together. We both have a common agenda, to at the very least bleed India, make trouble for India. Kashmiris don’t care if Khalistanis get their own country. Khalistanis may not care if Kashmiris get theirs. But they both care if they can double their effectiveness by working together and they certainly did. For Pakistan as a geopolitical matter of course, that’s equally essential. The Pakistanis were hardly backing the Khalistan movement because they are romantic about the Sikhs and they love the Sikhs and they want them to have their own country out of the goodness of their heart. Quite the reverse. In the words of Jagjit Singh Chauhan, the father of the Khalistan movement himself, the Pakistanis were cynically exploiting the situation of the Sikhs. They just wanted the Sikhs to make trouble for India to get back at India, to keep India on the back foot in the long running geopolitical contest between these two arch enemies. To work together, it simply made sense. It’s been remarkably ineffective. Certainly in recent years, because if you are going to support an independence movement in Punjab, there needs to be an independence movement in Punjab. You can have all the strategic reasons you like for helping them out, but who’s they? At a time when they get a fraction of one percent of the vote, there’s no there there. The actual movement wanting independence in Punjab has died out to the point where people outside trying to promote it have no one to work with.

A Tribute to Tejinder Singh

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It is my honor to write this tribute to the late Tejinder Singh who I feel proud to call a friend. Tejinder grew up in a small town called Kharagpur in the State of West Bengal, India. He enrolled in one of the prestigious and premier technical colleges– the Indian Institute of Technology/Kharagpur (IIT/KGP) to be a civil engineer. But his passion was journalism, and he abandoned the idea of being an engineer. He became a journalist that took him to Greece, Geneva, Brussels and finally the United States.

I met Tejinder about 4 years back at an event in the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. We soon connected as I also attended IIT/KGP. In our first meeting he spoke excitedly about his work and particularly India America Today (IAT), the monthly newspaper for which he was the Editor. He roped me into being on the IAT Board and soon assigned me the task of writing an article about Africa, a continent that I know well. He became fascinated about Africa and wondered aloud ‘Why are Africans mired in poverty despite having so many resources”. He read up a lot about Africa and it was not uncommon for him to come to my home late in the evening to talk about Africa. ‘I want to go to Africa’ he said one evening. And I promised to take him with me on my next trip. But the pandemic upset all plans and his dream remained unfulfilled.

Teji, as he was known to his friends, was a special person who loved his profession but loved meeting and interacting with people more. No one was a stranger to Teji. He would contact anyone who would be able to answer his probing questions for an article he was writing. Although known as a journalist, he was more than that. He was a caring person who respected the otherness of others.

One of the recent highlights of his career was the trip in November, 2019 as a part of a group of pilgrims who traveled from Punjab, India to Kartarpur Gurudwara in Pakistan, a holy site for the Sikhs. He proudly showed off the pictures of his trip at a gathering in our house. At this event he was a little child with a new toy!

Teji was a gentleman and always respectful even when asking tough questions at press briefings. For those of us who knew him as a friend and shared stories and laughter will miss him, but always knowing that he was a remarkable person, and I feel privileged to have known him.

Those Who Never Made it Back Home: A Somber Canada Day

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Today is Canada Day, and the nation reflects on some harsh truths. On May 27, 2021 the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 Indigenous children in Kamloops British Columbia at the site of what used to be the largest Indigenous residential school. Last week the remains of 751 bodies, mostly of children, were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School site in Saskatchewan, where the Cowessess First Nation is located. Yesterday, the Lower Kootenay Band said that it found the remains of 182 people near the grounds of the former St. Eugene’s Mission Residential School near Cranbrook in BC.

Between 1883 and 1996, over 150, 000 Indigenous children were forcibly sent to residential schools, many of which were operated by the Roman Catholic Church. A large number of Indigenous children never returned to their homes. In its report in 2012, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada said, “We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools. We call for that apology to be similar to the 2010 apology issued to Irish victims of abuse and to occur within one year of the issuing of this Report and to be delivered by the Pope in Canada.”

To date the Catholic Church has not issued an apology. After the discovery of the burial site in Kamloops, Pope Francis had tweeted, “I join the Canadian Bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my closeness to the Canadian people, who have been traumatised by shocking discovery of the remains of two hundred and fifteen children, pupils at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. These difficult times are a strong call for everyone to turn away from the colonial model and walk side by side in dialogue, mutual respect and recognition of the rights and cultural values of all the daughters and sons of Canada.”

In his Canada Day message, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that “for some, Canada Day is not yet a day of celebration.”

“The horrific findings of the remains of hundreds of children at the sites of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan have rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country’s historical failures, and the injustices that still exist for Indigenous peoples and many others in Canada. We as Canadians must be honest with ourselves about our past. And we must recognize that here in Canada there are still people who don’t feel safe walking the streets of their communities, who still don’t have the same opportunities as others, and who still face discrimination or systemic racism in their daily lives.

“While we can’t change the past, we must be resolute in confronting these truths in order to chart a new and better path forward. Together, we have a long way to go to make things right with Indigenous peoples. But if we all pledge to do the work – and if we lead with those core values of hard work, kindness, resilience, and respect – we can achieve reconciliation and build a better Canada for everyone.

Canada’s Ambassador to the US, Kirsten Hillman

Wearing orange to commemorate the children whose lives were lost as a result of mistreatment at residential schools, Canada’s Ambassador to the US Kirsten Hillman said, “Canada is a country that came into being without the meaningful participation of those who lived here first.”

“On this Canada Day, I encourage each of you to make a commitment to learn more about the Indigenous communities around you. Discover Indigenous culture. Educate yourself on the painful era of residential schools. Engage in meaningful discussions about our history and our past. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report is an excellent place to start and serves as a testament to the courage of each and every survivor and family member who shared their story. We must unreservedly address historical and ongoing wrongs so we can build a better future.”

In 2015, PM Trudeau promised to implement all 94 of the TRC’s calls to action. So far, 13 have been implemented and 60 are in progress. There has been no progress yet on call to action #75 which instructs the federal government to work with “provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.”

With the recent discovery of these unmarked mass graves, and the work that remains to be done on the TRC’s calls to action, this is a very somber Canada Day indeed.

As we reflect on the tragedy of the innocent lives lost, we also remember the 86 Canadian children (among 329 passengers and crew) who lost their lives when Air India flight 182 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. 82 of the children were under the age of 13, their lives cut short by the worst terror attack in Canadian history.

Initially the Canadian government treated it as an Indian tragedy, with the then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney speaking to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to condole “India’s loss”. It was not until 2005 that Canada declared the anniversary of the bombing a national day of mourning. Observing the 20th anniversary of the bombing, Prime Minister Paul Martin acknowledged, “Make no mistake: The flight may have been Air India’s, it may have taken place off the coast of Ireland, but this is a Canadian tragedy.” In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced an independent judicial inquiry into the Air India bombing led by former Supreme Court Justice John C. Major. His report – released on 17 June 2010 – concluded that a “cascading series of errors” by the Canadian government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had allowed the terrorist attack to take place.

Statement For the Record Submitted for Congressional Hearing on “Conflict in Ethiopia”

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Written testimony of Mesfin Mekonen for the Congressional Hearing on Conflict in Ethiopia

Honorable Chairman Gregory Meeks, Ranking member Congressman Michael McCaul, Subcommittee Chairwoman Karen Bass and Christopher Smith, and distinguished members of House Foreign Relation Committee.

I would like to extend my appreciation to all of you for granting the opportunity to submit my written testimony for this important hearing.

I am the representative of the Ethiopian/American community and have been working closely with Congress, especially with Congressman Christopher Smith and his Staff, Senate and the State Department on Ethiopia on Human Rights issues for the last twenty years.

The Ethiopian-American Community respectfully submits the following testimony for the aptly titled hearing on “The Conflict in Ethiopia.”

Ethiopians realize that the fate of their country rests in the hands of the Ethiopian people, but they also believe that the United States of America can help a great deal, and can serve as an inspiration in Ethiopia’s quest for human rights, democracy, and prosperity. Ethiopia has been an important ally of the United States in Africa. The stability of one of Africa’s most populous nations is critical to American policy, especially in the important Horn of Africa region.

The U.S. relationship with Ethiopia dates back to 1903, when King Menelik II signed a treaty of commerce with a representative of the U.S. government. Ethiopia supported the U.S. during the Cold War and has sacrificed the lives of its soldiers in the war on terrorism.

The U.S. has provided generous support for Ethiopia, on a humanitarian basis and in support of American strategic objectives.
American aid helped Ethiopians overcome drought and famine, even as the country was ruled by a corrupt, violent and repressive dictator, Meles Zenawi.

Meles was a leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and when he came to power, head of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRD). The U.S. government looked away as Meles and his government imposed a constitution on Ethiopia that swept away a centuries-long tradition of ethnic and religious tolerance in favor of a divide-and-rule strategy that pitted neighbor against neighbor in a struggle for access to food, land and security.

Reporting in the U.S. news media about the conflict in Ethiopia has lacked balance, focusing exclusively on the tragedy in Tigray, and has failed to put that tragedy in context.

The lack of balance in reporting about Ethiopia is exemplified by the world’s indifference to the fate of over 1,000 innocent people who were killed by TPLF soldiers and militia on November 12 in Mai-Kadra. The massacre, and the identity of its perpetrators, have been described by Amnesty International and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.

Ethiopian-Americans believe that Eritrean troops must withdraw from Tigray province in order for peace and law and order to be restored in the region. It is no less important for Sudanese troops to withdraw from Ethiopia territory.

The United Nations should be empowered to investigate killings and atrocities committed throughout Ethiopia, not just in Tigray, and all responsible individuals and organizations should must face justice. Violence, against all parties, is wrong and must be stopped.

Ethiopians can only live-in peace again if the root causes of conflict are identified and addressed. First and foremost, this requires replacing the constitution that has torn apart the country with a new charter based on national unity, democracy and respect for human rights.

The government of Ethiopia must carry out its basic responsibility to ensure public safety and security by ending politically motivated violence, especially on the Amahara in the Oromia, Benshangul and Southern regions of the country.

The priority of the U.S. Congress should in the short-term be to provide assistance to those who are suffering. As a matter of human decency and because a stable Ethiopia is in the strategic interests of the U.S., Congress and the Biden administration should help Ethiopia break out of the cycle of poverty, violence and repression. The U.S. should promote democracy and respect for human rights in Ethiopia.

U.S. policy makers should also learn from their past failures, from America’s coddling of Ethiopian dictators who mouthed soothing words about democracy while savagely repressing peaceful opponents and from the U.S. prematurely declaring the current Prime Minister Abiy a savior. The U.S. government has all too often acted on a limited understanding of the reality on the ground in Ethiopia.

Today Congress and the Biden Administration are being counseled to impose sanctions on Ethiopia that will have little effect on government elites or corrupt business leaders but could devastate innocent Ethiopians. Doing so would turn ordinary Ethiopians against the United States. It would also rip holes in fragile safety nets that are preventing the country from becoming a failed state and a haven for terrorists.

Rather than harm and alienate Ethiopians, the U.S. should support the Ethiopian people while pushing Abiy to respect human rights, release political prisoners, stop censoring news media, eradicate corruption and start a process of national reconciliation.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and for your focus and attention on this matter.

Sincerely and Respectfully Yours,

Mesfin Mekonen
Ethiopian-American Community

Pakistan Remains on FATF’s Grey List: Two Action Plans Need to Be Completed Before its Status Is Reassessed

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Washington, DC: The global terrorist hub of Pakistan continues to remain on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list with one item yet to be addressed on the original action plan from June 2018. Pakistan also has to address an additional six items on an action plan assigned by FATF’s regional partner, the Asia Pacific Group (APG). Although Islamabad avoided getting blacklisted, it cannot be delisted unless both action plans are completed.

FATF President Dr. Marcus Pleyer, in a virtual press conference on June 25, noted that Pakistan had yet to address an item on the original action plan on financial terrorism relating to the “investigations and prosecutions of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups”.

In its 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) on Pakistan, APG had identified additional deficiencies related to money laundering. This action plan requires Pakistan to continue to work to address its strategically important AML/CFT deficiencies, by:
(1) enhancing international cooperation by amending the MLA law;
(2) demonstrating that assistance is being sought from foreign countries in implementing UNSCR 1373 designations;
(3) demonstrating that supervisors are conducting both on-site and off-site supervision commensurate with specific risks associated with DNFBPs, including applying appropriate sanctions where necessary;
(4) demonstrating that proportionate and dissuasive sanctions are applied consistently to all legal persons and legal arrangements for non-compliance with beneficial ownership requirements;
(5) demonstrating an increase in ML investigations and prosecutions and that proceeds of crime continue to be restrained and confiscated in line with Pakistan’s risk profile, including working with foreign counterparts to trace, freeze, and confiscate assets; and
(6) demonstrating that DNFBPs are being monitored for compliance with proliferation financing requirements and that sanctions are being imposed for non-compliance.

Dr. Pleyer added, “So the delisting will not occur before both action plans are completed and two onsite [assessments] have been granted and successfully completed and have shown that the improvements are sustainable before the FATF members decide on delisting.”

Recent events in Pakistan, however, point to Islamabad’s continued support of terrorism. A three-member bench of Pakistan’s supreme court headed by Justice Mushir Alam, had acquitted Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, who is accused of beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has referred to Osama bin Laden as a martyr, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi refused to condemn bin Laden.

The next FATF plenary is scheduled for October 2021.

Dr. Amit Roy Appointed Executive Director of Global Phosphorus Institute

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(Benguerir, Morocco) – The newly launched Global Phosphorus Institute (GPI) announced the appointment of Dr. Amit Roy as Executive director to develop and lead the Institute. His initial focus will be creating the Consortium for cutting-edge phosphorus research projects, building global coalitions, and establishing research hubs around the world.

“We are pleased that Amit joins GPI to direct this new global initiative,” said Hicham El Habti, the President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco (UM6P) and President of the GPI. “His vast experience combined with his enormous breadth of knowledge, research work and experience in managing the International Fertilizer Development Center are valuable assets to GPI. I am confident that his qualifications will make him succeed in building out this Institute.”

Dr. Roy has been involved in phosphorus research for more than four decades beginning with his graduate work for a doctoral degree. At the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) he developed new products and processes for conversion of newly discovered phosphate rock into fertilizers along with other activities related to food production and agricultural development.

As CEO of IFDC, he oversaw a number of major publications including Fertilizer Raw Material Resources of Africa, World Phosphate Rock Reserves and Resources and Sustainable Phosphorus Management, A Global Transdisciplinary Roadmap. These publications helped raise global awareness about phosphorus and inspired similar initiatives around the globe. He also launched more than 20 international IFDC branch offices to establish collaborative global research programs and spearheaded the 2006 Africa Fertilizer Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria.

“I am honored and excited to develop GPI into the global convener of all things phosphorus,” said Dr. Roy. “This platform will be available to anyone from the local dairy farmer to the climate scientist to the chemistry student to the food manufacturer interested industries because we must ensure that phosphorus, a non-substitutable vital element, is responsibly managed and available for future generations.”

MQM USA Protests Against Continued Oppression of Mohajirs in Pakistan

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Washington, DC – The Muttahida Quami Movement USA (MQM USA) held a rally here on Saturday, June 19 – including a peaceful demonstration in front of the White House and the State Department – to protest against the continued oppression of the Mohajir (Muslim immigrants from India) community by Pakistan’s ISI. MQM USA’s central organizer Matloob Zaidi led the rally. This was followed by an annual convention held in Springfield Virginia on June 20th which included a speech by the MQM’s founder and leader, Mr. Altaf Hussain.

Participants in the rally reiterated their demands of the right of self-determination under the UN Human Rights Charter, and freedom of Sindh from Pakistan and its brutal establishment. MQM seeks to send a United Nations team to Sindh to speak with Mohajirs and oppressed Sindhis, and intervene to put an end to the continued human rights violations, including forced disappearances, political victimization, and extra judicial killings.

In a recent incident MQM worker Shahid Aziz died in the custody of police and para military Rangers in Karachi Central Jail as a result of torture by government officials. This is one of the many hundreds of incidents of the ISI’s atrocities and brutality against the Mohajir community in Pakistan, particularly in the urban areas of the Pakistani province of Sindh.

MQM’s demands include putting an end to Chinese colonization, stopping the spread of Islamic extremism in the South Asia region by the Pakistani Army and ISI, and stopping the ethnic cleansing of the Mohajir community.

The MQM is a political party in Pakistan. The All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO), which was founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain, led to the birth of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in 1984. In 1997, the MQM officially removed the term Mohajir from its name and replaced it with Muttahida (United). On June 19, 1992 Pakistani military launched an operation against MQM in Karachi.

Biden Pledges 500 Million Doses of the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine to Developing Nations

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Cornwall, United Kingdom – President Biden on Thursday announced that the United States will purchase half a billion doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine which will be donated to 100 low- and lower-middle-income countries, “that are in dire need in the fight against this pandemic.”

Biden made the remarks after his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the G7 Summit in Cornwall.

Biden said that two hundred million of these doses will be delivered starting in August this year, and 300 million more will be delivered in the first half of 2022. This is in addition to the 80 million excess doses of COVID-19 vaccines that are to be distributed by the end of June.

“Let me be clear: Just as with the 80 million doses we previously announced, the United States is providing these half million [billion] doses with no strings attached,” added Biden.

“We have supported manufacturing efforts abroad through our partnerships with Japan, India, and Australia — known as the “Quad.” We’ve shared doses with our neighbors Canada and Mexico,” said Biden.

“And from the beginning of my presidency, we have been clear-eyed that we need to attack this virus globally as well. This is about our responsibility — our humanitarian obligation to save as many lives as we can — and our responsibility to our values.”

Biden emphasized the United States commitment to strengthen global health , adding that “in this moment, our values call on us to do everything that we can to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.”

Commenting that the US is not alone in this effort, Biden said that under the UK chairmanship, G7 democracies of the world are ready to deliver as well. There will be an announcement tomorrow by the G7 nations on the COVID-19 vaccination program and the effort to defeat COVID-19 globally.

Au Revoir, Editor

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Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. ~ Robert Frost

The above lines were oft-quoted by Tejinder Singh, Founder and Editor of India America Today. He was born and brought up in the industrial town of Kharagpur, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Tejinder initially studied civil engineering at the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur, but journalism was his passion. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Osmania University, India.

A veteran multimedia political and business journalist, Tejinder lived in India, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, and Belgium, and was fluent in six languages.

Tejinder worked as EU Correspondent for APM Health Europe, and as a broadcast journalist with the BBC, South African Broadcasting Corp., and Flemish-English and Indian networks. He was the editor-in-chief for New Europe, The European Weekly, based in the EU capital of Brussels, Belgium from 1997 – 2009.

Tejinder moved to the United States in 2009, and founded India America Today in 2012. He was a White House, Pentagon and State Department Correspondent.

Tejinder was the National Press Club’s Chair of the Newsmakers Committee in 2010. He also served on the Broadcast Committee and the International Correspondents Committee. He served as vice president for print of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) from 2011-2012.

To those of us he worked with he was Tito, Teji, Tej. I have worked side by side with him at India America Today since 2014. He had a sharp wit, a disarming smile, and could file news stories with amazing speed, sometimes typing articles on his phone to get the news out quickly. Tejinder was unfailingly kind, caring, encouraging, and soft spoken, but wielded a pungent pen.

He is survived by his younger brother, Vikramjit Singh, in India.

Thank you all for the many messages, emails, and phone calls sharing memories of him and expressing condolences. We are including some of the messages here:

“I had many opportunities to interact with him and benefit from his keen intellect and encyclopedic knowledge during my tenure as India’s Ambassador to the US. I found him deeply involved in issues that concerned the welfare and interests of the Indian community in USA. An out of the box thinker, I was often benefitted by the ideas and suggestions he proffered on the issues we dealt with. His passing away leaves a void in the Indian-American media space and in our own hearts.” Indian Foreign Secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

“Tejinder reported the news with sagacity and skill. He pursued his questions doggedly, and he charmed with his pearly white smile. He made me think. He made me work. And he made me feel privileged to have the opportunity to speak for the U.S. government on the issues that meant so much to his readers. But the thing I will remember most about him was his manner. His dignity. He was a gentleman, through and through. And gentlemen are as rare today as they are important. I will miss that smile. I will miss that gentleman.” John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary.

“Tejinder was a bright light in the State Department briefing room, always there with a smile and an interesting question about whatever the news of the day was. He was incredibly kind and treated everyone else with respect, qualities that are far too rare in Washington. He was so welcoming to my parents when they came to visit, and they kept up with him on social media afterwards. I cannot believe that such a happy soul is no longer with us.” Marie Harf, former State Department Deputy Spokesperson.

“Tejinder covered the State Department for 11 years, participating in many State Department briefings both in person and also calling in every telephonic briefing. We already miss seeing his name in the question queue here today. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues as we grieve his loss. And I speak for my colleagues here when I say that he was such a pleasure to work with for all of us, and his presence will be sorely missed.” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter.

“I wanted to send my condolences for the loss of our colleague Tejinder Singh – he was such a vibrant, warm, and kind person and a true pleasure to work with. We were all saddened to hear the news of his death, which is a huge loss for the State Department press corps. I always enjoyed working with Tejinder; he always sent the most interesting questions, kept us honest in explaining our policies to the public, and of course served an integral role in keeping the Indian-American community informed. I miss him and I’m sending you my warmest thoughts as you and your colleagues grieve his loss.” Grace Chung, Press Officer, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), U.S. Department of State.