22 July 2000
Financial Times (London)
In a village near Delhi, two lovers lay dead – murdered by their own families in the name of caste. Samia Nakhoul reports on a social system that condemns millions to a life of squalor and inequality and asks whether it can ever change

The young Indian lovers lay side by side on the blazing funeral pyre of cow dung. When police arrived to recover the bodies, they had already been burnt beyond recognition. Their remains, a piece of blue cloth from a sari and torn shoes, were the only evidence left in the fields of Rajpura village of a crime committed in the name of caste.

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Born to be UntouchableRead More »

31 January 2000
South China Morning Post
NEW DELHI – Human rights groups are alarmed over a proposal to combat rising terrorism in India, arguing a similar law in the 1980s harassed minorities while doing little to stem violence.

Parliament is due to debate the Criminal Law Amendment Bill when it resumes next month.
It would give police sweeping powers to act against the terrorists, who New Delhi says are backed by Pakistan.

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Anti-Terrorism Proposal Triggers Fears for MinoritiesRead More »

16 November 1999
Agence France Presse
NEW DELHI, 16 November 1999 — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has left some 60,000 Afghan emigres in the lurch in New Delhi by cutting off payments and support, an Indian rights group said Tuesday.

The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre said in a report on Afghan refugees in India the UNHCR had “betrayed and abandoned” the exiles through its “heavy-handed and partisan” approach.

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UNHCR “Betrayed and Abandoned” Afghan Refugees: Human Rights ReportRead More »

7 September 1999
The Independent (London)
by Peter Popham In Delhi

FIVE KILLINGS in seven and a half months: hardly a bloodbath by local standards. But the murders of four Christians and a Muslim in a remote, densely forested region of Orissa state in eastern India have galvanised the country.

One reason for the outrage is the gruesome methods the killers employed. Father Arul Doss, 38, a Catholic priest from Tamil Nadu, was attacked by a 15 -strong gang in a remote village at 2am last Thursday. They shot him dead with arrows, wounded his companion and burnt down the local church.

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Wave of Religious Murders Blamed on Hindu FanaticsRead More »

3 September 1999
Inter Press Service
NEW DELHI, Sep. 3 (IPS) — The killing of a Catholic priest yesterday in eastern Orissa state betrays official apathy to continuing fundamentalist violence against minorities, say human rights groups.

Father Arul Doss, a Roman Catholic priest died in a hail of arrows in the tribal Mayurbhanj district near where an Australian evangelist Graham Staines and his two young sons were burnt alive by alleged Hindu fundamentalists in January.

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RIGHTS-INDIA: PRIEST’S MURDER BETRAYS OFFICIAL APATHY, GROUPS SAYRead More »

30 August 1999
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) on Monday alleged that the Wadhwa Commission, which probed the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, had failed to uncover the truth and produced a politically-biased report.

“The commission failed in both inspiring the confidence of minorities in India and in uncovering the truth about the killings of Graham, Timothy and Philip Staines”, SAHRDC said in a report titled “Report of Justice D P Wadhwa commission of Inquiry: Judicial Commission or Injudicious Cover Up?”

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WADHWA COMMISSION ACCUSED OF FAILING IN UNCOVERING TRUTHRead More »