LONDON, UK—Rob Marris the Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Wolverhampton South West constituency, has hit out at the Government in a letter regarding it’s recent inquiry by Cabinet Secretary into the role played by UK in the 1984 Punjab atrocities. Rob Marris has a long history with UK’s Sikh community. He was formerly the MP’s for constituency with a large Sikh population.
In the letter, Mr Marris criticized the report by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood about the British involvement in planning the June 1984 attack on Sri Harmander Sahib (Golden Temple) as being “unsatisfactory, and insufficient, in part, because its terms of reference were too narrow.”
The Cabinet Secretary’s report concluded that UK’s advice, and assistance, was insufficient, and insignificant, because the then UK government merely provided limited military advice in respect to what became Operation Blue Star. It is surprising that such a conclusion can be reached, given that at least some of the documents appear to be missing; documents which might add much greater clarity.
The Cabinet Secretary may be correct, however, he has admitted that the documents released in January 2014, were released in error, and that other documents were destroyed. So it is possible that the UK government attempted to minimize the extent, and nature, of UK involvement by destroying certain documents, and retaining others.
UK citizens of whatever faith, and ethnicity, are entitled to know with as much certainty as possible what happened, and why, who was involved, and with what level of culpability.
Support for transparency demands that all the relevant surviving documents be placed in the public domain, and a list of those who were interviewed by the Cabinet Secretary be made public. Regrettably so far, the UK government refuses to agree to these reasonable demands.
The current UK government has refused to release a copy of the report made by the UK’s military adviser, which was provided to the Indian Government on February 13, 1984. Release of documents would enable UK’s 1984 advice to be seen, and an assessment made of whether (or how much of) that advice was taken, or not. It is very hard to see how the release of that advice now, 30 years later, could in any way compromise current UK security.
The nature of the terrible events in Amritsar of June 1984 affects not only the Sikh community, but all of us. It affects our country, our sense of decency, our sense of who we are, the values that we hold for ourselves, as well those held in that community.
Outstanding questions about the extent, and nature, of UK involvement in the events of June 1984, can only be satisfactorily answered through an independent public inquiry, led by a judge, with comprehensive terms of reference.
