The widow of an Australian missionary murdered in India
along with their two sons said today she had forgiven the killers.
Gladys Staines said she had refused to leave India after the tragedy and, with
her daughter Esther, 17, has since taken over her husband's work, building a
hospital for treatment of lepers.
An Indian court today pronounces its verdict on the murder of Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons, Philip, 11, and Timothy, 7, who were burnt alive on January 22, 1999 when a mob led by Hindu zealots torched their car.
The killings took place in remote Manoharpur village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.
Mrs Staines she was aware somebody had something against her husband.
"It goes through my mind sometimes but wondering about it doesn't really bring him back, so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I am leaving that totally to the court," she said on ABC radio.
She said she had forgiven the killers.
"The Bible teaches us that we are to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us and I had the privilege and opportunity of growing up in a Christian family," she said.
"I was taught from a very early age to follow what the Bible teaches. Jesus taught us to forgive and I realised that if we don't forgive, then we allow bitterness to come into our own lives.
"It wasn't something that I sat and thought about. It was something that just automatically came."
Mrs Staines said she had decided against leaving India soon after the tragedy.
"A short time after my husband's death I was walking around the house where I was married, where I had my children, and looking around and I thought, `I don't want to leave this place'," she said.
Mr and Mrs Staines had spent more than 30 years working for leprosy patients in Orissa's Baripada district.
The murders sparked off national and international outrage, forcing the Indian Government to set up a judicial commission.
The attack was apparently sparked by a Hindu zealot, who accused them of seeking to convert other Hindus to Christianity.