I Forgive
Completely Those Who Killed My Husband And Children
Graham Stuart Staines (1941-January 1999)
was an Australian missionary who was burnt to death along with his two sons
Philip (aged 9) and Timothy (aged 7) while sleeping in his station wagon at
Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa, India in January 1999. In
2003, the Hindu activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the gang. Graham
Staines had been working
in Orissa among the tribal poor and especially with leprosy patients since 1965.He has been accused by Hindus of being
a zealous evangelical. While there is a perception that he converted many tribals to Christianity,
the rise in Christian population in the district claimed by opponents is very
slight.
Life history
Graham Staines was born in 1941 at Palmwoods, Queensland,
Australia. He visited India in 1965 for the first time and joined Evangelical
Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj (EMSM), working in this remote tribal area, with a long history of missionary activity.
Staines took over the management of the Mission at Baripada in 1983. He also
played a role in the establishment of the Mayurbhanj
Leprosy Home as
a registered society in 1982. He met Gladys June in 1981 while working for
leprosy patients, and they married in 1983, and have been working together
since then. They had three children, daughter Esther and two sons Philip and
Timothy. He spoke fluent Oriya and was very popular among the patients whom he
used to help after they were cured. He used to teach how to make mats out of rope and basket from
Saboigrass and hand weaving.
Death
On the night of January 22, 1999, Graham Staines had
attended a jungle camp, an annual gathering of Christians of the area to
strengthen fellowship and for teaching. In the night he was sleeping in his
station wagon when it
was set afire by a mob. Graham and his two sons (both minors) were burnt alive.
Subsequent events
Initial investigations, conducted by the Mayurbhanj police,
pointed towards the involvement of Dara Singh, the adopted name of Ravindra Pal Singh, a
activist who had been active in the region since 1989. On January 29, 1999, the
Government of India set up a judicial commission of inquiry under Justice D.P.
Wadhwa of the Supreme Court to investigate the murder. The commission was to
submit a report in two months but this was changed to 5 months in March 1999.
In that same month, the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of
Investigation from the state police. In June 1999, the commission submitted its
report holding Dara Singh guilty of the crime. The very next day, the CBI
submitted chargesheets against the people involved. In January 2000, Dara Singh
was arrested from a forest in Mayurbhanj district. In September 2000, charges
were brought against the accused. Trial began in March 2001 in a district and
sessions court designated a CBI court. In February 2002, an accused, Mahendra
Hembram said in court that he was the sole culprit and that the others were
innocent. In April 2003, accused Dayanidhi Patra said in court that he was
present when Dara Singh set fire to the vehicle. The trial ended in August 2003
and judgement was passed in September 2003 convicting Dara Singh and Hembram. In spite of Gladys
Staines' appeal for mercy, Dara Singh was sentenced to death and 12 others were given
life imprisonment .
However, the death sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment in May 2005 by the Orissa High Court , who also acquitted
the other appellants. Gladys returned to India in June 2006, and in an
interview underlined the importance of forgiveness.
"In forgiveness, there is no bitterness and
when there is no bitterness, there is hope. This consolation comes from Jesus
Christ." On Mar 19, 2007, the
Supreme Court issued notice to the CBI on a petition filed by Mahendra Hembrom
challenging the Orissa High Court verdict, saying that his confessional
statement before the trial court, in which he had said that he killed Graham
Staines, should be considered in toto.
In her affidavit before the Commission on
the death of her husband and two sons Gladys Staines says :-
"The Lord God is always with me to guide me and help me to try to
accomplish the work of Graham, but I sometimes wonder why Graham was killed and
also what made his assassins to behave in such a brutal manner on the night of
22nd / 23rd January, 1999. It is far from my mind to punish the persons who were
responsible for the death of my husband Graham and my two children. But
it is my desire and hope that they would repent and would be reformed."
The
Pioneer Newspaper quotes her interview given to Doordarshan as under :-
"BARIPADA: The widow of G.S. Staines has said the perpetrators of the crime should
be forgiven as it was the Almighty who had drawn the life span of her husband
“God gives children. He gives them life. He gives and takes. I am
grateful to God for giving him (Staines) this long a life to serve
people," Gladys Staines told DD. "We cannot demand a longer
life from God than what He has decided for each of us," she
said. Mrs. Staines was a picture of poise as she stood yards away from the
verandah where three coffins had been lined up. Her resilience seemed to
have passed on to her 13-year-old daughter Easther who stayed by her mother's
side ever since the killing. Women mourners seeking to console her broke
into sobs every now and then. "I've no hatred for anyone.
"I've no anger," Mrs. Staines responded."
Even after
the brutal killing of his husband and two little kids, his widow forgave the
killers and still continues to do the good work that her husband started.
Where can such a heart come from rather than from God Himself.Missionary widow Gladys
Staines said. “Every person
should be given a chance to rebuild his or her life”, she is quoted as having
said in a telephone conversation from Australia where she now lives, making
periodic visits into Mayurbhanj in Orissa where the Staines’ Leprosy Home and
missionary society is still going strong.
The
missionary(means a follower of God), Staines came down from a luxurious life to
a complete remote tribal village to help the poor the needy. He helped the
lepers and treated them with kindness. He taught the people their livelihood.
Who would come down to this level and do things like this for the fellow humans
who we never remember as existing. Is it for the name?, for the fame?. No not
at all. It was all for the Love that Christ had put in him for the fellow
people. But the result of doing good was death along with his little kids and
his wife and daughter left alone. Now this is what we call us persecuted
for Christ’s sake. Yet we will speak about the love of Christ to our fellow
human beings till our last breath and keep on showing them our love and
concern. Are you ready for this sharing?
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