Mission & Justice

29/8/08

At least 1,500 people have fled their homes for shelters in eastern India after days of violent clashes between Hindus and Christians that have killed at least 10, officials said Thursday. Hundreds of houses have been burned to the ground and police have been ordered to shoot on sight after the killing of a popular Hindu holy leader on Saturday sparked riots that have drawn the condemnation of the pope. “There are around 1,500 people from both the communities who have been rescued by the police,” local civil administrator Satyabrata Sahu told AFP.

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Sean Parnell; 27/8/08

The Bligh Government has been accused of covering up the case of a Queensland couple who unwittingly adopted an Indian girl now alleged to have been stolen from her parents. The two-year-old Chennai girl was allegedly kidnapped in 2000 and sold to an Indian adoption company, Malaysian Social Services, as part of a child-trafficking scam that is now under investigation in several countries. A Queensland couple adopted the girl, now aged 9, with the approval of Indian, Australian and state authorities, not learning of the devastating allegations until years later. The Queensland Department of Child Safety first learned of the case in May last year, having been notified by the office of the then federal attorney-general, Philip Ruddock.

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26/6/08

Suspected Hindu hard-liners set an orphanage run by Christian missionaries on fire in eastern India yesterday, killing one nun and seriously injuring a priest, police said. The attack occurred in Khuntapali, a village in Orissa state, during a strike called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest Saturday’s killing of a Hindu religious leader and four others by suspected Communist rebels in another district of the state, Ashok Biswal, superintendent of police, told The Associated Press. Orissa simmered with tension yesterday with churches attacked, vehicles torched and rail and road traffic affected as thousands demonstrated in several places as part of a statewide shutdown called by the VHP to protest the killing of a leader.

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Siobhain Ryan & Sean Parnell; 26/8/08

When Julia Rollings first heard that the orphanage from which she had adopted her son and daughter was embroiled in a child-trafficking scandal, she was faced with a life-changing choice. She could do nothing, safe in the knowledge that her children, Akil and Sabila, had been declared free for adoption by Indian courts, were Australian citizens and were in a place they called home. Or she could find out for sure whether the story she was told - that Akil and Sabila’s parents had voluntarily relinquished them because of ill-health - was true. Two years ago, Mrs Rollings chose the truth, and the truth hurt. An Indian friend she commissioned to look into Akil and Sabila’s background found they had been sold by their drunk and violent father to the Madras Social Service Guild orphanage for $50 without their mother Sunama’s knowledge or consent.

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John Lyons; 23/8/08

At least 30 children brought into Australia for adoption may have been stolen from their parents as part of a child-trafficking network in India. Some children are believed to have been stolen from the streets by gangs who sold them for as little as 10,000 rupees ($280 each) to an adoption agency, which sent them to wealthy countries such as Australia. A major investigation by Time magazine, to be published this weekend, has found that a gang of criminals kidnapped “pretty” children from the poorest parts of southern India, gave them new identities and sold them to adoption agencies. The federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, said last night he had asked his department to contact Indian authorities and liaise with the Australian Federal Police to seek more details.

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Rhys Blakely; 21/8/08

The death of 49 babies used to test experimental drugs at one of India’s top hospitals has raised concerns that ethical standards are being compromised as the country becomes the world’s leading destination for clinical trials on human beings. The deaths occurred over a period of 30 months at the Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences, an elite medical college and public hospital renowned for providing low-cost treatment to the poor.  The dead babies were part of a pool of 4142 infants used in 42 clinical trials - one of the final stages of drug development - at AIIMS since January 2006, many for Western companies. Of the children used in the trials, 2728 were under a year old.

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Rhys Blakely; 8/8/08

A 13-day-old girl may become India’s first surrogacy orphan after the Japanese couple who paid for her to be conceived divorced just weeks before she was born, leaving her in legal limbo. The baby, who has been named Manji and is being kept in hospital after falling ill, faces an uncertain future after her Indian surrogate mother and the Japanese woman who had planned to adopt her refused to take her. Her biological father, who wants to keep the baby, has not been allowed to take her out of the country because of laws banning single men from adopting girls.

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Caroline Overington; 11/7/08

Two of India’s top public servants have been arrested in connection with corruption in the $300 million wheat trade between Australia and India. The arrests come two years after the Howard government stymied an investigation into the Indian wheat scandal, which allegedly occurred in 1998, when the Australian Wheat Board was a statutory authority under the government’s supervision. The case centres on the purchase of two million tonnes of Australian wheat at “exorbitant prices”, and the payment of $2.5million in commissions to bank accounts in the Cayman Islands in February 1998. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, wanted to investigate the scandal in 2001, 2004 and 2006, but officials said the Howard government repeatedly refused to assist the Indian police with their inquiries.

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Tanveer Ahmed;10/7/08

A young Indian patient of mine has just come out. Overcoming his enormous fear of rejection, he has finally admitted to his conservative Hindu family that he is gay. For those who doubt the power of symbols, he was partly inspired by the first gay parade in Delhi last week. A large portion of the several thousand who marched wore masks to remain anonymous. They were both celebrating their sexuality and protesting against an 1861 penal code enacted by the British that “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” is punishable by life imprisonment. While it is rarely applied, there are still cases of corrupt police using it to blackmail suspected homosexuals.

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Saeed Saeed 9/7/08

Indian born Roghini Govindhan knows hardship. She was sold to a contractor at the age of 13 and, up until five years ago, she was working furious 11-hour days in a cramped damp room churning out match boxes. Now 24, Govindhan has taken her first trip abroad, sharing her painful experiences with audiences of Australian school students, as part of World Vision’s Don’t Trade Lives anti-slavery campaign. Govindhan acknowledges the rapid change in her fortunes has been dizzying.

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