July 1999 | DAILY STAR

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« Bleak future faces Afghan Hindus in Germany An Assessment – Afghan Hindus and Sikhs » July 26, 1999 by afghanhindu

HUMAN RIGHTS FEATURES | A joint initiative of SAHRDC and HRDC
-6/6 Safdarjung Enclave Extension, New Delhi -110 029, India.

HRF/4/99 | Embargoed for 26 July 1999

Approximately 60,000 Afghan refugees are estimated to be living in New Delhi, but since the beginning of 1999, the Indian Government’s Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has refused to renew their residence visas. As a result, the residence visas of most of these refugees have expired and they are now living in the country illegally, a predicament that every Afghan refugee in India will share by the end of the year. This situation has had predictable consequences. For example, most of these refugees are now wary about traveling outside their own neighbourhoods for fear of extortion, or, even worse, deportation, at the hands of the Indian police. The situation for Afghan refugees is rapidly deteriorating…… Read 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 »