LONDON, UK (November 4, 2014)—Campaigners from various communities gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square yesterday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the November 1984 Sikh genocide and for World Prisoner Solidarity Day.
The event, organised by campaigners from Kesri Lehar, Nations Without States and 1984 Genocide Coalition, marked 30 years of impunity for the perpetrators of mass violence against the minority Sikh community in India. For these campaigners, the event illustrates an unwillingness to forget such massacres and a sustained persistence in pressing for accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses.
Amongst those in attendance were campaigners from the Sikh, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Kashmiri, Tamil, Sabha, Cameroonian and Khuzestani communities. Campaigners stood in solidarity and raised awareness of mass human rights abuses and illegal detention of political prisoners in their respective countries.
Upkar Singh Rai of the National Liberal Party made a concerted effort to film the plights of each community in order to compile a video which will raise awareness of the on-going atrocities being committed against minority communities around the world, and the continued illegal detention of innocent people.
Doris Yapp, a UK resident campaigner for Sabah independence, ended the gathering with a shout urging everyone to continue to fight for freedom. She has recently been specifically named by the Malaysian Prime Minister in a warning to Sabah activists.
