Peter Rosenblum

Peter Rosenblum was the clinical director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School when, in December 2002, he wrote the preface to Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab. The book is the final report of the Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP) and was first published in May 2003 by the South Asia Forum for Human Rights. It covers disappearances, killings and secret police cremations in Punjab between 1984 and 1994.

Why he backed the report: He writes that he followed the researchers' work for more than two years. At first, he says, he wondered why they were returning to events that seemed settled, and he doubted that they could pierce the thick veils of ideology, intrigue and state security that hide how Punjab was pacified. His doubts eased, he writes, because of their careful method: they collected testimonies from across the region, transcribed them, and spent hundreds of hours checking them against public statements, documents and official records.

What he says about the evidence: He writes that a reader need not trust the authors' good faith or share their opinions, because the report sets out a mass of evidence from families and from officials. Read beside police, court and crematoria records, he says, the testimonies raise serious questions about the state's willingness to balance justice and security honestly. He adds that if even some of the testimonies are true the official story must change, since those who died could no longer be dismissed as simply "terrorists". He calls the very presentation of the report a rebuke to the National Human Rights Commission, which he says has advanced very little in its investigation.

Key moments

• By December 2002: he has followed the researchers' work for more than two years.
• December 2002: he signs the preface in Boston.
• May 2003: the report is published. Its authors thank Henry J. Steiner, James Cavallaro and Peter Rosenblum, the director, associate director and clinical director of the Harvard program, for letting them use its facilities to complete the final draft.

What he is remembered for: for lending a Harvard human rights program's name and a short, plain preface to the most detailed published record of Punjab's disappearances, and for the sentence that the official story would have to change if the testimonies held.