[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5392]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN INDIA

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about human rights abuses in 
India today.
  As we may know, Christians and other religious minorities have faced 
terrible persecution in India recently. In January, an extremist mob 
burned alive an Australian missionary and his two sons who were trapped 
in their car.
  This is not the first instance of persecution. Over Christmas, 
churches throughout India were burned and destroyed. Christians' homes 
were looted and stoned, and Christian individuals were attacked and 
stoned.
  In January, missionaries and seminary students were attacked and 
beaten with rods. Then just last week, an extremist Hindu group called 
Vishwa Hindu burned 150 Christian homes in Orissa's Gajapati District 
and terrorized the Christian community with homemade guns.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Indian government to take decisive action to 
stop this continuing violence and bring to justice those who have 
committed the crimes, and protect the rights of all minority religious 
believers in India.

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