Bangalore, India, 20 June (ENI)--Churches in Sri Lanka are warning about the harassment of Tamil civilians, including Christians, on the ethnically divided Indian Ocean island. "We are highly perturbed by the spate of abductions taking place all over the country. These are crimes against humanity which you must be capable of stopping," the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka said in an 18 June appeal to President Mahinda Rajapakse and the national police chief.

The council's warning followed the abduction, allegedly by the police, of Manickam Johnson, a Tamil Christian, in the Wellawatte suburb of Colombo earlier the same day. In recent months, Sri Lanka has been sliding back into civil war between security forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are seeking autonomy from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

The Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka has urged the president and the police chief to intervene in the disappearance of Johnson. The alliance also described the recent disappearance of a number of civilians as a "matter of utmost urgency which is threatening the security of citizens". The grouping added that all attempts to trace four church members who went missing in early March had been "futile".

Pastor Victor Emmanuel Yogarajan from the Gospel Missionary Church in Vavuniya and his two sons, Daniel Yogarajan (aged 22) and David Yogarajan (aged 20), as well as Joseph Sugandakumar (aged 20) all disappeared on 2 March, while travelling in the Negombo district of Colombo. They are all Tamils. "It seems ethnic Tamils are getting special treatment from the security forces," the Rev. Suresh Ramachandran, principal of the Mount Carmel Bible College near Kandy, told Ecumenical News International on 19 June.

Ramachandran, himself a Tamil, was arrested in May with two other Tamil staff of the Bible college. They were all accused of destroying Buddhist statues. The college principal was quickly released on bail after his lawyers presented evidence that he was visiting his daughter in hospital at the time of the alleged crime. It took a further two weeks for the other two staff members to be freed. Ramachandran said local Buddhist leaders had threatened publicly to plant weapons and alcohol in the Bible college premises to get the Tamil staff arrested. He added, "For them, all Tamils are supporters of the LTTE." [398 words]

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Bangalore, India, 15 June (ENI)--Christian groups in India have hailed as historic a decision by the church-run St Stephen's College in Delhi to reserve 40 percent of its places for Christians. "St Stephen's College has become the first church-constituted institution to take this long-due affirmative action, which will go far in undoing prejudices against Christians from the depressed classes," said the All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union in a joint statement on 14 June.

Competition is fierce for admission to India's 25 000 Christian schools and 300 Christian colleges because of their strong academic reputations. Non-Christians as well as Christians seek admission, believing it will give them better career prospects. In many church-run schools and colleges, non-Christians are in the majority. St Stephen's College, seen as one of the finest educational institutions in India, said that at least a quarter of the places it will reserve for Christians would be set apart for Christian Dalits. These are low castes treated as untouchables in India, and who account for two thirds of the country's 26 million Christians.

"This is a welcome step," said Mani Jacob, general secretary of the All India Association for Christian Higher Education, an ecumenical forum of 310 government-affiliated Christian colleges. "That will help the poorer Christians and Dalits get quality education," Jacob told Ecumenical News International. He said he hoped all Christian educational institutions would follow the example of St Stephen's. The St Stephen's principal, the Rev. Valsan Thampu, told ENI he hoped that the action of his institution would encourage other establishments to make a firm commitment to the community. "It is not enough we preach equality and dignity for the Dalits," said Thampu, "We should ensure that our institutions give them preference in admission." [307 words]

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Bangalore, India, 12 June (ENI)--Church leaders and activists in Sri Lanka have welcomed a decision by the country's Supreme Court that has halted a controversial forced eviction of members of the minority Tamil community from the capital, Colombo. "This gives us respite from gross violation of human rights," said P. Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a non-governmental group, following the court ruling on 8 June.

The policy centre had requested the court to order a stop to the forced evictions, which began when security forces raided hostels in the early hours of 7 June. Officers removed hundreds of young Tamils at gunpoint from Colombo in buses escorted by the security forces. The Sri Lankan defence ministry's Web site quoted police chief Victor Perera as saying that the move was necessary to protect the capital against bomb attacks by Tamil rebels, who allegedly stay at low-budget hostels.

In recent months, Sri Lanka has been sliding back into civil war between security forces and Tamil rebels seeking autonomy from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Although a 2002 cease-fire put in place by Norwegian mediators ended two decades of conflict, fighting flared up again after the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse in November 2005. Rajapakse won with the support of Sinhala nationalist parties.

A Supreme Court official was reported as saying that the court will hear on 22 June an official complaint that the evictions violate constitutional rights, but until then the court ordered that the practice stop. Santha Fernando, spokesperson for the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, described the court order as "the relief that we have been longing for".

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo was one of the first to protest against the removal of ethnic Tamils from the Sri Lankan capital. He condemned the evictions as "a serious violation of the dignity and civic rights of these citizens of Sri Lanka". [331 words]

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New Delhi, 5 June (ENI)--The Roman Catholic Church in India say it will give greater priority to marginalised groups such as Dalits, to people known as tribals and to the poor in admissions to its vast network of nearly 15 000 educational institutions. "We exercise a special preference for the children of the marginalised and take responsibility to ensure that they receive education of quality and relevance … to occupy their place in society," declared the All India Catholic Education Policy 2007, released in New Delhi on 31 May.

The move is popular among some Catholics. Parents who send their children to Catholic schools, however, see it as putting pressure on some of the much sought after schools and colleges which have been accused of denying admission to poor Catholic and other students. "Unless the poor and the marginalised are educated, India cannot be a developed country," said Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, who released details of the policy.

Oppressed Dalits, low castes treated as untouchables, and tribal people who account for more than a quarter of India's 1.1 billion people remain the most deprived sections of society in the world's second most populous nation. "Unless the poor and the marginalised are educated, India cannot be a developed country," said Cardinal Toppo.

In the name of merit, some prestigious Catholic institutions have been accused of denying admission to marginalised Dalits and tribals due to pressure from those seen as social elites who favour the church institutions, known for their quality education and discipline. The Catholic policy follows up that made at the 2006 assembly of 160 Indian bishops, which discussed the issue of "Catholic Education and the Church's Concern for the Marginalised".

That policy stated: "No Catholic child, Dalit or tribal or otherwise should be deprived of quality education because of a lack of means. We make this preferential option even if in the process, academic results suffer." However, even church officials admit the goal is a tough task for the 14 539 Catholic educational institutions with 7 million students on their rolls.

"Certainly, there is a problem, especially in urban areas. Some of our prestigious institutions do not give much preference to the marginalised," Bishop Felix Toppo of Jamshedpur in eastern India told Ecumenical News International after the policy release. A detailed survey of Catholic educational institutions has found that more than 70 percent of the students in the Catholic educational institutions including 13 000 schools were from poor families and 72 percent of these students were non-Christians. [438 words]

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New Delhi, 30 May (ENI)--Thousands of Christians have marched in New Delhi to protest against violent attacks in recent weeks against India's Christian minority and to which they say the government is failing to respond. Chants of "hallelujah" were interspersed with slogans denouncing "atrocities on Christians" as church leaders, lay activists and some non-Christian campaigners marched on 29 May to the Indian parliament.

There they handed in a statement addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which stated that the Christian community is "saddened at the silence of the government on whom we look to for support in meeting the gravest challenge facing our community". In many cases, house churches, nuns, and pastors have been attacked, and wives, daughters and sisters of pastors had been dragged out of their homes and "violence committed against them", it stated. "In most cases, the police remained passive witnesses," it noted, and in several regional states authorities had "connived" with Hindu fundamentalists.

"Things are going from bad to worse," said Joseph D'Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, which organized the protest rally. "There is a steady increase in the number of attacks in different parts of the country. It is vicious and there is a systematic pattern behind it," he told Ecumenical News International. More than 20 cases of serious violence against church personnel have been reported since the important Christian feast of Easter. These included including two brutal attacks on pastors, which were covered live by television stations apparently tipped off by Hindu fundamentalists.

The AICC had in 2006 recorded 128 serious cases of violence against Christians, who account for 2.3 percent of India's 1.1 billion people. Pastor Robin Bihans from Gurdaspur in Punjab state, bordering Pakistan, told ENI, "We are supposed to be citizens of this country. But when attack after attack is reported regularly, we feel we are second class citizens." [326 words]

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