IMC-USA regrets the death of Amnesty International’s founder Peter Benenson

February 28, 2004

Indian Muslim council-USA, an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding the pluralist and democratic values of India has expressed regret at the death of Amnesty International’s founder Peter Benenson.

Mr Benenson had founded the human rights group Amnesty International in 1961. The movement began as a one-year campaign for the release of six prisoners of conscience. Then it evolved into a worldwide movement for human rights and formed Amnesty International, an international organisation, which has taken up the cases of many thousands of victims of human rights violations and inspired millions world wide to defend human rights.

"IMC-USA mourns the death of Peter Benenson. His passing away on the eve of the third anniversary of the Gujarat pogroms makes the occasion more distressing for us," said Dr. Shaik Ubaid, the president of IMC-USA."His legacy and memory will strengthen our resolve in our present campaign to get justice for the victims of Gujarat pogroms," said Dr. Ubaid.

IMC-USA is a member of Coalition Against Genocide (www.coalitionagainstgenocide.org) which currently is in the midst of a campaign to oppose the visit of Narendra Modi the chief architect of the Gujarat pogroms. The massacres carried out in 2002 involved the brutal killings of more than 2000 people, rape and sexual mutilation of hundreds of women and girls and the ethnic cleansing of scores of villages. Mr. Modi has been invited by his supporters to be honored at the Asian american Hotel Owners Association. His visit is also being opposed by more than 75 faculty members of American universities and colleges.

Contact person:
M.K.Rahman
Secretary General
IMC-USA
265 Sunrise Highway # 1-355
Rockville Center, NY 11570
(516) 567-0783
info@imc-usa.org
www.imc-usa.org