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 »

25 August 1999
Sydney Morning Herald

An Indian judicial inquiry into the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons ignored evidence that the killer belonged to a group linked to the ruling Hindu nationalists, an influential human rights organisation has charged.

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Judge Blamed for Protecting Killer MobRead More »

The Globe and Mail 15 May 1999
John Stackhouse

Wangchuck has the royal touch
The King is building a welfare state,
with free education, health care

In a region dominated by political thugs, crooks and buffoons, Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck stands out, and not just for his dashing looks and four gorgeous wives, all sisters.

The 43-year-old monarch, who ascended the temporal throne at the age of 18 after his father died on safari in Kenya, is slowly emerging as a Himalayan version of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, the leader of a tiny outpost who may yet turn his country into a model state and gain disproportionate influence with its much larger neighbours.

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The Hidden KingdomRead More »