NOVEMBER 2003

• Wednesday, 5th November,2003

  GUJARAT - A QUESTION OF FAITH

  Promoting Christianity in India can be a matter of life and death as the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines has shown. Staines was killed by Hindu fundamentalists angered by missionaries converting increasing numbers of India’s poor. The poorest of the poor in India are the Dalits or ’untouchables’. They are embracing Christianity and Buddism as a way out of their miserable life. That in turn has prompted Hindu nationalist state governments to outlaw conversion as Edwina Throsby reports.
  
  

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• Wednesday, 5th November,2003

  WEST PAPUA

  We received an extraordinary videotape last week - smuggled out of the remote highlands of West Papua. The tapes are pleas for help to the outside world. They detail allegations of the burning of villages, schools and churches by the Indonesian armed forces. The material offers a rare glimpse into a region - and a struggle - that Indonesia doesn’t want the world to see.
  
  

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• Wednesday, 5th November,2003

  TIMOR TORTURE

  For several years stories have been circulating, mostly unpublished, concerning claims that Australian soldiers were engaged in acts of torture of militia prisoners in East Timor in 1999. All of those claims were dismissed by internal defence force inquiries but no details of the allegations or the evidence have ever been publicly available. Tonight, three militamen detail their experiences as prisoners of Australian forces. Their story involves accusations of torture and the apparent disappearance of one of their fellow prisoners. For the past fortnight we’ve been providing full details of these claims to the Australian Army. They’ve offered no denials to these claims and have refused multiple invitations to appear in this program. However late this afternoon, the Chief of the Army announced that an investigation would be launched.
  
  

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