Brussels - The European Union should take India to task over the question of the death penalty and the alleged persecution of religious minorities, human-rights group Amnesty International said Friday. In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is to chair an EU summit with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, Amnesty urged the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency to "make human rights a core part of the discussion."
"The EU should express disappointment that India retains the death penalty and voted against the (UN) moratorium (of December 2007)," the open letter said.
India provides no concrete information on the frequency with which it imposes the death penalty, arguing that its federal structure makes it hard to do so, but reports from local human-rights groups "suggest that the Government of India does maintain records but has not made them public," the letter said.
Amnesty says that at least 140 people are believed to have been sentenced to death in India in 2006-07. However, only one execution is known to have been carried out there since 1995.
The EU should also "urge the Government of India to take immediate action to halt the attacks on Christians" in the state of Orissa and, more generally, "discuss the wider persecution and discrimination against religious minorities," the letter said.
Diplomatic sources in Brussels say that while the EU and India hold a regular dialogue on human rights, the summit is more likely to focus on trade relations and global issues such as climate change and the current financial crisis.
