From Zenit: India's Anti-Christian December Offensive

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Independent Tribunal On Kandhamal Violence
Members of the Tribunal
MR. JUSTICE HOSBET SURESH
MR. JUSTICE KOLSE PATIL
MR. R. B. SREEKUMAR, IPS, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE [RETD.] GUJARAT,
MS TEESTA SETALVAD
Facilitation:
Dr Pran Parichha [943709714], Mr. Joseph Dias, Mr. Hemant Nayak
Convener:
Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Govt of India
09811021072 johndayal@vsnl.com

URGENT
Bhubaneswar, 17 May 2008
Transcript excerpts of press meeting by the Independent Tribunal on Kandhamal on return of Justices HOSBET SURESH, KOLSE PATIL, MS TEESTA SETALVAD AND RB SREEKUMAR, IPS RETD AFTER PUBLIC HEARINGS IN KANDHAMAL DISTRICT​

–War footing required in Rehabilitation Relief, Reconciliation
– Roofs must before Monsoons
– Systematic communal polarization must be checked
– Government had warnings of violence but failed to act
Independent Tribunal will send list of queries to State Government for response​

The four-member Independent Tribunal consisting of eminent jurists Justice Hospet Suresh, Justice Kolse Patil [both former High Court judges], Director General of Police [retired], Gujarat, Mr. R. B. Sreekumar and Ms Teesta Setalvad, the noted Human rights activist, returned from Kandhamal on the evening of 16th May 2008 after extensive Public hearings in the district between 13 and 15 May 2008. Justice Suresh left for Mumbai early, but Justice Kolse presided over a press conference also addressed by Ms Teesta Setalvad and Mr. R B Sreekumar at Swosti Hotel in Bhubaneswar today. The Tribunal did not issue a written statement, but made oral preliminary remarks and said the Interim report will be prepared and questionnaires sent to the State and Central Government authorities for their comments and responses before the final report was made public.
The following are excerpts from the typescript of the Press conference:
JUSTICE KOLSE PATIL: We have been going places through the country where there is human rights violations and prejudice. We were requested by Ms Teesta Setalvad and we have been to Kandhamal for the Independent Tribunal. We have practically visited most affected villages, tried to talk to victims personally, and we also invited them for giving evidence before the Tribunal. We have recorded the evidence.
ONE THING WE NOTED PROMINENTLY IS THAT AID HAS NOT REACHED THE VICTIMS. CHURCHES, HOSTELS, HOSPITALS WHICH ARE DESTROYED – THEY ARE AS IT IS. NOW WE KNOW THE AREA IS FACING MONSOONS. BY JUNE, WITHIN THESE FIFTEEN DAYS, IF AID IS NOT REACHED, THE CONDITION OF THESE VICTIMS WILL BE PATHETIC. MANY OF THEM HAVE NO HOUSES YET. HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES ARE EITHER STAYING IN A CAMP OR WITH THEIR RELATIVES, WHEREVER THEY GOT SHELTER.
This is a religious as well as an economic problem. A community rich in resources is being exploited. The culminative effect of this exploitation, we know, is that every six months or a year, riots take place.
The womenfolk who deposed before us said they were so independent before 1970. “We had our own traditions, our own sanskruti and we used to have tremendous independence.” We in the Tribunal found that this happiness of the people there is being jeopardized by the religious, political economic exploiters. The area is being destroyed. The ultimate ulterior motive of the leaders, religious, economic or political, is clear. Many of the down trodden are doing business now and they are educated, and because of their education and upliftment, the class that was exploiting them earlier, is making life miserable for them.
The evidence is with us and we will analyse it. We have tried to invite all state machinery to give evidence. We also tried to contact them to give and other facilities to the people/ There are no government schools running in the area, and some schools run by other agencies seem to be for their own ulterior motives. The government instead of protecting the traditions and culture of the people has allowed other agencies such as the RSS and the Bajrang Dal to be active. The government machinery is not taking an interest in the progress of the area. The police have neither recorded the complaints of the people nor given them protection, and there this is the best example of why there is no law and order in the district.
But prima facie, it is important that the people get aid immediately so that by June their life is somewhat conformable and they are in a position to have shelter.
 
Independent Tribunal On Kandhamal Violence
Members of the Tribunal
MR. JUSTICE HOSBET SURESH
MR. JUSTICE KOLSE PATIL
MR. R. B. SREEKUMAR, IPS, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE [RETD.] GUJARAT,
MS TEESTA SETALVAD
Facilitation:
Dr Pran Parichha [943709714], Mr. Joseph Dias, Mr. Hemant Nayak
Convener:
Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Govt of India
09811021072 johndayal@vsnl.com

URGENT
Bhubaneswar, 17 May 2008
Transcript excerpts of press meeting by the Independent Tribunal on Kandhamal on return of Justices HOSBET SURESH, KOLSE PATIL, MS TEESTA SETALVAD AND RB SREEKUMAR, IPS RETD AFTER PUBLIC HEARINGS IN KANDHAMAL DISTRICT
–War footing required in Rehabilitation Relief, Reconciliation
– Roofs must before Monsoons
– Systematic communal polarization must be checked
– Government had warnings of violence but failed to act
Independent Tribunal will send list of queries to State Government for response.
The four-member Independent Tribunal consisting of eminent jurists Justice Hospet Suresh, Justice Kolse Patil [both former High Court judges], Director General of Police [retired], Gujarat, Mr. R. B. Sreekumar and Ms Teesta Setalvad, the noted Human rights activist, returned from Kandhamal on the evening of 16th May 2008 after extensive Public hearings in the district between 13 and 15 May 2008. Justice Suresh left for Mumbai early, but Justice Kolse presided over a press conference also addressed by Ms Teesta Setalvad and Mr. R B Sreekumar at Swosti Hotel in Bhubaneswar today. The Tribunal did not issue a written statement, but made oral preliminary remarks and said the Interim report will be prepared and questionnaires sent to the State and Central Government authorities for their comments and responses before the final report was made public.
The following are excerpts from the typescript of the Press conference:
JUSTICE KOLSE PATIL: We have been going places through the country where there is human rights violations and prejudice. We were requested by Ms Teesta Setalvad and we have been to Kandhamal for the Independent Tribunal. We have practically visited most affected villages, tried to talk to victims personally, and we also invited them for giving evidence before the Tribunal. We have recorded the evidence.
ONE THING WE NOTED PROMINENTLY IS THAT AID HAS NOT REACHED THE VICTIMS. CHURCHES, HOSTELS, HOSPITALS WHICH ARE DESTROYED – THEY ARE AS IT IS. NOW WE KNOW THE AREA IS FACING MONSOONS. BY JUNE, WITHIN THESE FIFTEEN DAYS, IF AID IS NOT REACHED, THE CONDITION OF THESE VICTIMS WILL BE PATHETIC. MANY OF THEM HAVE NO HOUSES YET. HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES ARE EITHER STAYING IN A CAMP OR WITH THEIR RELATIVES, WHEREVER THEY GOT SHELTER.
This is a religious as well as an economic problem. A community rich in resources is being exploited. The culminative effect of this exploitation, we know, is that every six months or a year, riots take place.
The womenfolk who deposed before us said they were so independent before 1970. “We had our own traditions, our own sanskruti and we used to have tremendous independence.” We in the Tribunal found that this happiness of the people there is being jeopardized by the religious, political economic exploiters. The area is being destroyed. The ultimate ulterior motive of the leaders, religious, economic or political, is clear. Many of the down trodden are doing business now and they are educated, and because of their education and upliftment, the class that was exploiting them earlier, is making life miserable for them.
The evidence is with us and we will analyse it. We have tried to invite all state machinery to give evidence. We also tried to contact them to give and other facilities to the people. There are no government schools running in the area, and some schools run by other agencies seem to be for their own ulterior motives. The government instead of protecting the traditions and culture of the people has allowed other agencies such as the RSS and the Bajrang Dal to be active. The government machinery is not taking an interest in the progress of the area. The police have neither recorded the complaints of the people nor given them protection, and there this is the best example of why there is no law and order in the district.
But prima facie, it is important that the people get aid immediately so that by June their life is somewhat conformable and they are in a position to have shelter.
 
MS TEESTA SETALVAD: We have just concluded our visit and this is a preliminary feedback for the media.
It is virtually five months after the break of the violence. The violence which we know was deliberately engineered around Christmas day 2007 had been festering for other reasons since about July or august 2007. The festering conflict since that period has been twisted and manipulated and engineered around Christmas eve, which is a very major event for the minority community. And the violence unleashed. Even the government – we met relief official the sub collectors, have spoken to the superintendent of police. Even the government records show where the damage has taken place.
**What is really of concern is that even five months after the violence, when we visited the remnants of the camp at Barakhama, the communication levels that ought to be there between the victims and the government officials were not there. While we were there, we actually encountered a young woman who suffered an abortion, needed to be taken to hospital because she was festering with a stomach infection which could have led to septicemia. **Only after our intervention, she was privately taken to the Balliguda hospital for treatment. This small incident, but which could have affected her life, showed that there has not been required and requisite coordination between the victim groups and the government. Even five month after the outbreak of violence, in the heat of this month and the threat of monsoon by the next fifteen or twenty days, government officials admit that about 220 houses need to be built in Barakhama alone, and now private agencies are being asked to chip in to buy asbestos sheets for the roofs. We do not understand how government could not recognise the urgency of doing something about it.
Out first appeal to the government is that they should put aside technicalities and on a war footing ensure that every single house is built. It is not that which agency gives the money, but the issue should be that the people who are dis-housed and displaced by the violence it is the responsibility of the government under the Constitution to ensure that the houses are built.
NUMBER TWO: We also believe that in a particular village which is quite inaccessible – even we had to walk to it because the road is very bad – called Borikia, there are 48 [forty-eight] families who are displaced from there and are now staying at G Udaygiri. This is an immediate problem. **We are therefore appealing to the authorities that under police protection, if required, they are allowed to go back to their village because they are still living in a leprosy camp and they are not able to go back.**I would not go to the nitty gritty of testimonies, but our visit was very illuminating. Out of my experience of travelling across the country – unfortunately dealing with communal situations –what was very apparent and heartening in the Kandhamal area is the inherent communication and empathy that even the different affected groups have with each other. We believe there is a tremendous potential for peace-building in this area. There is a history of peace-building like in 1994 when women from different tribes and groups were given the leadership. The governments unfortunately not entrusting them with this peace-building. Unfortunately, many of the peace committees set up by the government have people on them who are themselves accused in the violence. So they fail to attract the faith of the affected population. Something heartening we found was that the local populations do not have animosity, apathy towards their fellow people. The local population does not have grudges, or any festering communalism.
THERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT LED TO THE VIOLENCE, BUT THERE IS A TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL TO OVERCOME IT. SO INSTEAD OF MAKING CYNICAL EXPLOITATION OF THE POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE IN THIS PRE-ELECTION YEAR – THERE IS ONE MORE CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR – THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON GENUINE PEACE BUILDING AND HAND OVER THIS PROCESS TO PEOPLE WHO CAN HANDLE THIS WORK. THIS IS ALSO OUR APPEAL.
Our preliminary view also is that in terms of what happened 24 to 27th December 2007, there were definite indicators of various kinds that such violence may break out. So there seems to have been a failure of the state to take preventive measures. The timing of a bandh on a date which is an important feast of the minorities – all this points to the fact that the government did not take as seriously as it should the events of 24th and 25th December. These mistakes we cannot afford to repeat. This is a very inaccessible region. If anything of this kind is allowed to fester, it will be even more problematic. We feel the government should learn the lessons, admit its failure and NOT allow them to happen once again As citizens of this country, poor victims of inaccessible areas should NOT become victims once more of something that can be avoided.
We also have reports of communal speeches being made, a certain communalization of populations. This will come out in the final report. But we believe that stringent action against communal elements is a step the government should be taking.
 
MR. R B SREEKUMAR, IPS RETIRED: We have to think what we can do hereafter. We should build upon the present situation. Unlike in other places, particularly in Gujarat for instance, there is a lot of amity prevailing here between people. THERE IS A STANDARD LAID OUT DRILL THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA REGULATIONS STIPULE – THERE ARE THREE “R’s” TO BE FOLLOWED. THESE ARE FIRST RECONCILIATION, SECOND REHABILITATION AND THE THIRD IS RESETTLEMENT. FOR THIS THERE SHOULD BE SCHEMES. ONE IS THE CIVILIAN ONE. AND THE OTHER IS THE POLICE SIDE. NO SOCIETY CAN BE HELD TOGETHER ON POLICE TERROR AND POLICE SUZERAINTY OR POLICE PLAN. THOSE WERE FOR EASE OF BRITISH ACTION. That is why the British gave all powers to the policeman. A head constable apparently has more power than the President of India – he can arrest a citizen under fifty-two different laws. That is the British system which we are continuing.
WHAT IS REQUIRED THE CIVILIAN ACTION. Development problem and social problems will degenerate into communal clashes unless action is taken, or caste or class violence. Institutions and NGOs fail, government departments fail. Civil departments in Kandhamal should come out with detailed scheme regarding social welfare, social mobility, economic issues, and even religious reconciliation. We are not lacking any code of conduct or systems. We have not implemented them. There are certain agent’s provocateurs, instigated by evil minded people probably deputed by some political parties, communalists, who have some grand design to break India, they are behind it. These people should be brought on record by the police. These are all laid down procedures and should be followed as listed in the Orissa Police Rules. This is a specified laid down drill down to the police station. But apparently it is seldom or rarely implanted. It must be impended otherwise another conflagration will take place.
It seems there is some problem in arresting a top-most communalist who is engaged in rabid vituperative attack against a minority community, denigrating holy personalities such a Jesus Christ. If the police say it is not easy to arrest him, a beginning can be made by arresting his henchmen. Without these henchmen, these tools, he cannot operate.
There should be a special riots scheme to handle future situations in this area otherwise the police will collapse. There should be standard operating procedures in which dos and Don’ts for every rank of officer should be laid down. IPS officers should be trained.
There seems the skill is lacking. But also the will is lacking. If the police are again caught unawares, unlike in Delhi, Ahmadabad or Chennai, here in far flung areas, you may have to drop policemen by helicopters and even then by the time the police come, the whole thing may be over. I think because of the amity, fraternity and harmony between people, there was no targeted attack on human beings. Had they attacked human beings, nothing would have been left. The riots died down of their own, without any government intervention. It is as if the government was following some system of `naturopathy’. This cannot do.
RESPONSE TO SOME QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA:
TEESTA SETALVAD: The tribunal invited leadership of all different sections of public and political parties to depose. THE PUBLIC CAME FROM ALL COMMUNITIES AND RELIGIONS, BUT THE POLITICAL LEADERS DID NOT, EITHER FROM THE RULING ALLIANCE OR FROM THE OPPOSITION. We have this experience in other tribunals. The person [Swami Laxmananda] you mention did not appear before us. But there is not a single section of people that did not depose before us. Unfortunately the political class looks askance at Tribunals and the administration.
Justice Patil: We named people because there was evidence on record – the slogans, and the names related by witnesses.
Ms Teesta Setalvad: we have on record testimonies of people who have studied in the ashram of Swami Lakshmanand Saraswati – how this ashram functions, what it does, what activities go on there. Al this is now on record of the tribunal. We have concluded that certain types of speeches that have been made and telecast have made the communal pointing.
The government has been apathetic. **Monsoons are approaching, Aid has not yet reached. IT IS THE PRIMARY CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT TO ENSURE THAT PEOPLE HAVE A SHELTER OVER THEIR HEADS AND DO NOT SURVIVE IN SUBHUMAN CONDITIONS. ** Even now people have not gone home, or not been able to return home. Surely there is a degree of insecurity. Miscreants who have been identified in every village – the whole village is not communal, but some elements are – create situations in which people cannot come back. At that stage the administration should step in, to ensure that the citizen should be able to return. This indicates complicity. State complicity is in not having adequate force to prevent violence despite warning, and not taking immediate and concrete steps since the violence broke out. Even today, police are not registering FIR’s and punishing the guilty. These are the ingredients on which we say that there has been a high level of carelessness and apathy on the part of the government – When crimes are committed across time and across villages, who the villagers are naming as accused.
There were many ingredients that form the backdrop of the violence, but the violence took a distinctive communal color. IT IS UNFORTUNATE FACT OF OUR HISTORY AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY THAT COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND OTHER VIOLENCE BETWEEN DIFFERENT SECTION OF SOCIETY IS USED BY THE PARTY IN POWER , WHICHEVER THE PARTY IT IS, BUT FOR SOME PARTY, HATRED ITSELF IS THE AGENDA. Using violence for political ends has unfortunately become a part of democratic electoral practice in India.
Some parties have hatred as an agenda and some don’t.
It is obvious there were a lot of preparations for the violence. Violence can be used to polarize people in a pre election year. The fact that this happened in December 2007 and what we have seen of the political response – by the ruling party and the opposition – it seems there has been some complicity across parties. If adequate lessons are not learnt, there are fears that once violence has been used, it will be used again. Here or in neighboring districts or in neighboring states which will go to elections sooner or later.
It is the local people who can provide answers and solutions. They are working day and night. I was really humbled by the testimonies of the Kui women.
In Kandhamal, people filed FIRs, even sent it by registered post. But these were returned. This is against the law. Under section 154, FIRs have to be registered, as the law of the land insists. The attitude of the police and administration does not seem to be to record the FIRs and punish the guilty. This is unfortunate. There was ample evidence through government sources. **The reasons why the government did not take adequate measures speaks for itself. It is the amity between the people that prevent more lives lost. Otherwise there was nothing that the government did which could have prevented this. Violence festered with no affective government intervention. **
Our report will say all this in a considered manner. We will come before you once again.
RELEASED TO THE MEDIA BY DR JOHN DAYAL
Member, National Integration Council, Government of India
Convener of the Independent Tribunal
Mobile phone number 09811021072
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com
 
INDIA AT PEACE. BUT NOT WITH THE CHRISTIANS

In step with the economic indices, attacks against the churches and faithful are also rising in the big Asian country. Amid the silence and disinterest of the world. A report from the state of Orissa, the area most affected by the violence

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, May 19, 2008 - While the stern eyes of the world are turned toward China, in India equally severe violations of freedom and human rights are taking place amid general disinterest. With Christians as the victims.

The epicenter of the violence is Orissa, a state facing the Bay of Bengal, south of Calcutta. Here, since Christmas until now, there have been 6 deaths, 5,000 left homeless, and 70 churches, 600 homes, 6 convents, and 3 seminaries destroyed.

“An expanse of ashes, that’s what is left”, exclaimed Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, after visiting the areas struck by anti-Christian violence.

But alarming news is arriving from other places in India as well.

In Maharashtra, the state whose capital is Mumbai, in the month of March two Carmelite sisters who for 13 years had carried out their ministry among the outcaste tribes were attacked by Hindu extremists. "They were shouting, accusing them of effecting conversions, " some of the witnesses reported.

In Madhya Pradesh, at Easter, the government had to deploy the military in defense of churches: the measure was taken after more than 100 acts of aggression since December of 2003, when the BJP, the Hindu nationalist party, won control of the local government.

In that same period, the parliament of another Indian state, Rajasthan, approved an anti-conversion law that inflicts a penalty of five years in prison and a fine of 50,000 rupees (about 1,250 dollars) on those who carry out conversions “by force, coercion, or fraud.” With Rajasthan, there are now six Indian states where this kind of norm is in force, which is in fact aimed against the Christian missionaries.

But the situation is worst in Orissa, the Indian state where half of the 36 million inhabitants are made up of tribals and Dalits, the social groups most disadvantaged by the rigid caste system. In Orissa, poverty, backwardness, and modernization coexist, producing an explosive mixture.

And it is against this background that anti-Christian violence is breaking out. To the disinterest of a West that is entirely absorbed by the economic boom of this Asian giant.

**The silence on the tragedy is broken by the report reproduced below, published in the May 2008 issue of the monthly “Mondo e Missione” of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions: **
 
ORISSA, THE MINOR LEAGUES OF THE PERSECUTED by Giorgio Bernardelli
“In the village, the climate between us and the Hindus had always been good. We invited them to our celebrations, and we participated in theirs. But now we are all afraid.” Fr. Santosh K. Singh, a young priest of the archdiocese of Cuttack -Bhubaneswar, is talking about his Baminigam. He is talking about a village like so many others in this area of eastern India. A group of houses in the forest that, all of a sudden, has been turned into the epicenter of the strongest wave of anti-Christian violence in recent years.
It is the story of what happened here in Orissa at Christmas. **With the raids by the Hindu fanatics of the RSS, who left behind seven dead and hundreds of homes, churches, schools, and clinics burned in the district of Kandhamal. And in a climate of intimidation that - several months later - is still palpable.
Again at Palm Sunday, for example, in the village of Tyiangia, a crowd incited by the usual characters gathered shouting anti-Christian slogans. Violence was avoided only because the pastor decided to cancel the procession. **
Everything began in Baminigam on December 24, Christmas Eve. “Do you want to know how it really happened?” Fr. Santosh asks immediately. Telling the story is important to him, because there are several reconstructions of the events. And the one that appeared in the Indian newspapers identifies the spark in the aggression against the Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, a Hindu holy man linked to the RSS who travels around Orissa to " bring back to their origins" the tribals who have converted to Christianity.
“That’s not what happened,” rebuts Fr. Santosh. **“It all started when, on the morning of December 24, our permission to celebrate Christmas in the town square was revoked. Our stallkeepers arrived and were told that they had to go back home. There must have been some tension as well. But two hundred men armed with clubs suddenly emerged from the forest, and began to destroy and burn everything.” **

The violence continued for four days. It was fostered by the inexplicable delay in the intervention of the security forces. The Christians were forced to flee into the forest in order to survive, while their homes continued to burn. There remained in the forest for days and nights, in the cold, eating what they were able to find. Until, finally, the local authorities set up tent encampments. And in the district of Kandhamal, a calm returned full of tension and of serious doubts.

“We had realized what was about to happen,” recounts Raphael Cheenath, the archbishop of Chuttack-Bhubaneswar, whose territory includes the district of Kandhamal. **" On December 22, we had clearly told the authorities that we were afraid of suffering violence at Christmas. They had promised us protection. Instead, they did absolutely nothing." **

I met Archbishop Cheenath in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The district of Kandhamal is about five or six hours away by car, in the forest. And yet during those days, the violence had arrived all the way to the archbishop’s residence, with a Molotov cocktail thrown against the entrance. And it is no mystery to anyone that the meetings of the RSS in which Christians are identified as the enemy are also held in that city of 800,000 inhabitants. But, more than the clandestine secrets, it is the public decisions that worry the archbishop, and the ambiguous attitude of the local government, headed by Naveen Patnaik, an ally of the BJP, the Hindu Nationalist party.

"In February," the archbishop continues, "right here in Orissa there was an attack on the part of Maoist guerrillas. They attacked a police barracks and killed some of the officers. A state of emergency was declared immediately: the military arrived en masse in a few hours. At Christmas, instead - when it was the Christians who were suffering violence in the district of Kandhamal - It took four days. Why this difference in the reaction? ".

But there is also the problem of assistance for the victims, which is still unresolved. “They do not allow our organizations to bring assistance,” Archbishop Cheenath charges. “There are people there who have lost everything: their homes were burned, and they were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The government has promised to take care of them, but the help does not come. And the population continues to suffer.”

Together with the houses, in the district of Kandhamal, the work of 30 years has been completely destroyed: schools, clinics, centers of assistance. Even the house of the Missionaries of Charity, the male branch of the order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta - which shelters lepers and tuberculosis patients - was attacked. Everything was left to burn for hours, while the Christians were fleeing into the forest. And now school is held under the tents. “Misereor” - the international solidarity organization of the German Church - has come forward to help with reconstruction. But the government of Orissa is not giving them permission. For 42 days, the archbishop himself was refused permission to visit the stricken communities.

"Officially, " comments Archbishop Cheenath, "they tell us that this is for security reasons. But the truth is that they want to block the presence of Christian organizations. The Hindu extremists accuse us of carrying out conversions through aid operations. But this is a false accusation: everyone saw this in Orissa in 1999, when there was a tremendous cyclone. Two thousand of our volunteers were mobilized. And they helped everyone, without distinction. " In order to resolve the situation, the Supreme Court had to intervene on April 8, with a judgment that declared the ban illegitimate.

In looking at this big city, so much like so many others, it is difficult to believe that it is a haven for fanatics. “We know that many Hindus are against the violence, " the archbishop confirms.” Privately, they have even expressed solidarity with us. But they are afraid of speaking out. And so this campaign of hatred conducted by the fanatics is producing results. They are depicting us as enemies, and saying openly that they want to destroy us."
“But where do you think that all this hatred against Christians comes from?”, I ask him. **“I am convinced,” the archbishop replies, “that there is a hidden cause behind the religious extremism, one of a social nature. The real problem is not the conversions, but the work that the Christians in Orissa have done over the past 140 years on behalf of the tribals and the Dalits, the lowest in the caste system. Before, there were like slaves. Now, at least some of them study in our schools, start enterprises in the villages, assert their rights. **And those - even in the India of the economic boom - who want to keep intact the ancient caste divisions, are afraid that they will become too strong. The Orissa of today is a laboratory. At stake is the future of millions of Dalits and tribals living all over the country.”
Orissa is like the new laboratory for the fundamentalists: so many say this over and over again in the Christian community. Because it is true that this is one of the poorest states in the subcontinent. But also here in Bhubaneswar, something is starting to happen. You leave the archbishop’s residence and plunge into the Big Bazar, the brand new American-style shopping center. The airport - like all of the Indian airports - is in expansion.
“It seems incredible, but when we opened twenty years ago, it was still jungle around here,” recounts Fr. E. A. Augustine, director of the Xavier Institute of Management, one of the city’s most respected institutions. It is an economics faculty with an interesting history: it is the result of an agreement between the government of Orissa and the local Jesuit province.
So even in a state like Orissa, where an anti- conversion law is in effect, there is no difficulty in naming a public entity after St. Francis Xavier. Because in India, the Xavier School is synonymous with quality everywhere. “Everyone wants to imitate our structures, " continues Fr. Augustine, " they acknowledge their quality. Apart from some fanatics, they respect us. But we do not want to be a center for elites. For example, we also organize courses in rural management, designed for the development of villages.”
And then - also here in Bhubaneswar - there is the other face of the Jesuit presence. It is that of the Human Life Center, with its popular courses in spoken English to help those who have emigrated to the city from rural areas. Or the courses in tailoring, typing, computers, to provide opportunities for those who otherwise would have none. And then there are the seven schools opened right in the slums of Bhubaneswar. Because change must arrive there as well.
The impression is that in the end, the real problem lies here. The violence in Orissa is not simply the inheritance of a past that India is struggling to leave behind it. The clash concerns the present, and above all the future of the country. **It concerns a social situation in which those who for centuries have remained at the margins are beginning to come forward. And so those who - on the contrary - want to maintain the status quo are playing the card of the threat to identity. **
There is an important electoral appointment in view: in May of 2009, general elections will be held in India. The BJP - the Hindu nationalist party, defeated in 2004 by the alliance of the Congress Party and the left - is aiming at a comeback. And - as the violence against the Muslims in Gujarat demonstrated in 2002 - inciting tension among religious groups is the most effective way to consolidate the ranks. “It is no accident,” maintains Fr. Jimmy Dhabby, director of the Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, “that this violence against Christians erupted a few weeks after the reconfirmation of Narendra Modi, a leading member of the BJP, as head of the state of Gujarat. And that it happened in Orissa, a state where voting for the local government will be held in 2009.”

It is a game that is moving forward in Bhubaneswar. It’s enough to open the local edition of the newspaper on any day of the week to find statements like this, from the leader of the RSS K.S Sudar-shan: “There are many threats hanging over the nation: the violence of the Maoists, the Islamic jihad, the conversions of the Christian missionaries. We must be united in order to react. Do not wait for someone else to do it for you.”

Even the investigation opened by the government of Orissa to shed light on what happened at Christmas is proceeding according to rather questionable methods. **“After months without any news whatsoever,” John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, charged on his blog, “the judge handling the case arrived without warning in the district of Kandhamal. He questioned the sisters and the priests. They were astounded when they were asked: Have you converted anyone here?” As if the object of the investigation were the activity of the Christians, and not the violence committed by the Hindu fanatics. **
Another worrying chapter is that of compensation. “So far no official indications have been provided,” Dayal continues, **“but we have read in the newspapers that while schools, hostels, and clinics will be able to receive a contribution of 200 thousand rupees (about 5 thousand dollars), the churches and convents will be excluded from anycompensation. If this were true, it would be not only surprising, but also offensive. The main targets of the attacks were precisely the churches and convents. Excluding them makes no sense.” **
This is the atmosphere now in Orissa. “An explosive situation is lurking beneath the ashes,” says H. Naik, of the Orissa Dalit Adivasi Action Net. “For some time the Hindu nationalists have been campaigning to ‘reconvert’ the tribal Christians. Are these not violations of the anti-conversion laws? Why do they not apply to them?”

After so many people were killed, so many homes and Christian churches burned, one question must be asked.** What is the difference with respect to the Islamic violence in other regions, for which - rightly - so much space is reserved in the media? And why does no one in the West raise his voice about what is happening in Orissa? The protest of the Christians in front of parliament in New Delhi at Easter did not appear in our newspapers. **
The reply of Archbishop Cheenath is a bitter one: “The India of today is a market sought after by everyone,” he explains. “There are strong economic interests, and everyone wants to have good relations with us. In this kind of situation, no one cares about what is happening to the minorities.”
It is an unsettling cry of pain that is coming from the Christians of Orissa today.
 
Abortion in a refugee camp, houses without roofs and a single-track police investigation From John Dayal
johndayal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/05/abortion-in-a-refugee-camp-houses-without-roofs-and.htm

Remember those two infant boys who born in the forests of Kandhamal district in Orissa during Christmas 2007 in a Nativity script so horribly rewritten by marauding gangs of the Sangh Parivar?
I am happy to report that both boys, now five months old, are doing well in their Ulipodara village near Brahminigaon, which was attacked on Christmas night. I visited them last fortnight and saw them in the arms of their young mothers. Mercifully child Yesudas, appropriately named by his mother Mukti Parichha, and Kumidini’s still unnamed baby boy, show no signs of the trauma. Their mothers and the rest of the village are, however, still in a state of shock.

It is not that many houses still do not have a roof, or that the followers of the self styled Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati are still trying to build a temple just a tree shadow away from their desecrated and burned church – the goons were chased away by the police, but have threatened to come again – or that pubescent girls no longer go to the school where they are being teased even by other girls, or threatened with rape on the road.
 
johndayal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/06/kandhamal-orissa-update-9-june-2008.htm
Of continuing Gender Violence, bureaucratic indifference in rehabilitation, and the Government silence on rebuilding churches destroyed in Sangh Parivar arson
I have been to Orissa, including Kandhamal, seven times [six times to the district] since 28th December 2008. …
The people are deeply disappointed and saddened by the lethargic and insensitive, almost inhuman, response of the Central and State governments …
The people are also deeply disappointed at the response of civil society, as without its pressure and moral backing, it is difficult to wrest justice from the authorities who seemed determined to remain callous at best and absolutely bigoted and partisan at worst.
**The national media remains silent, barring perhaps the occasional dispatch in New Delhi Television, NDTV. **A very few Human Rights groups are helping; the most notable is the Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi, apart from the Christian Law Network and the lawyers retained by the all India Christian Council and the Catholic Archdiocese of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack under the towering leadership of septuagenarian Archbishop Raphael Cheenath.

The monsoons are setting in, and still up to four hundred families are without a roof over their head. The government has been doling out the money is driblets. The grant for totally destroyed houses is fifty thousand rupees, and half or less for partially destroyed houses. But half burnt houses cannot be rebuilt. They have to be first razed to the ground and then rebuilt, and the government does not recognize this. Relief officers have privately told me with steel and asbestos, sheets, cement and bricks and a bit of wood, the total comes to eighty-five thousand. …
But there is no answer from the government. It is becoming increasingly clear to the people that justice can come only from the superior courts. The people may also have to approach the Supreme Court because Christians are being discriminated against in rehabilitation and resettlement – while the few Hindu victims have been given plots on tribal tracts even if they are Dalits, Dalit Christians are not getting land with the authorities telling them that their old houses were built on tribal land and they cannot get that land back under the existing laws.
**
In the criminal cases, there is only now that information is coming out, and shyly, about the extent of gender violence, including incidents of rape, molestation, and assault.** Even now, many girls particularly in the Brahminigaon area cannot go to school for fear of molestation after threats have been received from local goons and political activists. An application is being filed with the National and State Women’s Commissions on this. **A full and detailed probe is called for, and a sensitive counselling programme designed in the medium and long term, specially for teenagers and young women. **The victims are grateful for the visit of Sr Mary Scaria of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, a Supreme Court advocate, and then of Teesta Setalvad with the Impendent Tribunal which unearthed the magnitude of gender victimization.
The economic violence, ostracisation, and alienation question is equally important. **Christians who had started making a life for themselves through running shops and self employment were particular targets. **This was confirmed during the second visit of the national Minorities Commission in April. The Christians are still facing a sort of social and economic boycott. …
**The police remain perversely bigoted. **In Brahminigaon police station, they are actively trying to manufacture and prove a link between the Naxalite and the Christians; they are also actively progressing on the cases relating to the burning of the few houses of Hindus in this area. But there is no progress reported at all in catching the culprits who burned the churches and the houses. Even the Balliguda sub collector told me that the main man responsible, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, cannot be restrained or arrested because such are the orders of the higher authorities and the State government. He and his henchmen can be seen in all parts of the district.

Meanwhile, we are informed on good authority that the Sangh Parivar is preparing for more violence in another area of Orissa – near and in the Sundargarh district which abuts Jharkhand.
 
The Hindu extremists responsible for these attacks need to be found and locked up for a long time. The ones that murdered need to be locked up for life. The behavior of these Hindu extremists just absolutely disgusts me! :mad:
 
Holly3278 said:
The Hindu extremists responsible for these attacks need to be found and locked up for a long time. The ones that murdered need to be locked up for life. The behavior of these Hindu extremists just absolutely disgusts me! :mad:
Click to expand...
Dear Holly
Thanks for the prayers. It is true that this news is so discouraging since these poor Christians are now without shelter for nearly 6 months having faced unimaginable hardship and trials. It is God’s will to lead his children in the wilderness sometimes for His greater glory, it is he who will bind their wounds and lead them to pasture.
I found personally some benefit in reading Alphonsus Rodrigues - Christian perfection where he talks of conformity to Gods will. I have stored the book here.
groups.google.com/group/catholic-heritage/files
Otherwise it is well nigh impossible to understand why there is so much suffering in the world.
I am certain God has a plan in these events and wants us to pray, using as St Ignatius says human means to co-operate with Gods holy will.
God Bless
Derrick
Code:
 
Challenges of Communalism - His Eminence Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD
This is the article penned by his Eminence Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD. of the archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar and sent by his secretary Fr. Mrutyunjaya. It contains some practical points as to how the Church can grow from these incidents.
God bless
Derrick
 
Women Still Traumatized from Christmas Attacks in India

Psychological disorders persist in female Christians in Orissa state, study shows.

By Vishal Arora
johndayal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/06/the-great-silence-in-kandhamal.htm
NEW DELHI, June 20 (Compass Direct News) – Preliminary findings of an ongoing study on gender violence shows that female victims of attacks in Orissa state last Christmas season are struggling with post-traumatic disorders.

The study, conducted by local Christians and led by Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, records accounts of premature births, sexual molestation and attempted rape during the violence that began on Christmas Eve and lasted for more than a week in Kandhamal district. The violence, allegedly led by extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), left at least four Christians dead and 730 houses and 95 churches burned.

According to the study, at least seven Christian women victims are facing psychological disorders.

Sabita Digal, 30, from Barakhama village went insane after her close brush with the attackers. On Christmas day, a mob of around 200 Hindu extremists stormed the village and set the house of Christians on fire. Digal, along with other Christians, ran toward a jungle.
She fainted from fright and had to be assisted by the others to the jungle, where she remained without food or medicine. The study says that Digal, whose husband is poor and jobless, has been behaving abnormally since then.

Similarly, a 65-year-old nun, Sister Christa, and 30-year-old Anjali Nayak from the Mt. Carmel Convent in Balliguda, still have bouts of anxiety and depression. Lengthy counselling sessions with psychologists have yielded little improvement.

While Sister Christa and Nayak were decorating their church for Christmas, a mob came and set the building on fire. The two women, along with others, hid in a room, where they could see nothing but thick smoke.

Although all the women were finally able to escape, memories of the attack continue to haunt them. Nayak, who refused to go back to the convent in Balliguda and was therefore sent to a convent in Phulbani district, finds it difficult to sleep. She often shouts in the middle of the night, saying, “They are coming to kill us.”

In the same way, Sister Siba, Sister Hemanti Minz, Sister Rohini Pradhan and Sister Jerina Kollammaparambil of the Mt. Carmel Convent in Phulbani have not been able to go back to their normal daily routine since they witnessed attacks in their convent.
Further, Sasmita Sualsing, a 15-year-old orphan girl at a convent in Padangi and student, is unable to concentrate on her studies since she saw her church being vandalized and burned by the Hindu extremists.

How these cases will be handled, Dayal said, would be a test for the state administration and India ’s criminal justice system.
“For the Sangh Parivar (family of groups linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India’s chief Hindu nationalist body),” he added, “the gender violence, thoroughly exposes all their pretence at respect for women, which they seem to have in the same measure as they have respect for the laws – zero.”

Many victims are still in the jungles fearing further physical attack…
 
The ugliness of rape
khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/editorial/2008/June/editorial_June48.xml&section=editorial&col=
22 June 2008 Print E-mail
THE United Nations displayed its usual slow-motion forward-movement in formally classifying rape as a war crime, associating it with genocide, but the move is welcome nonetheless. For once, rights organisations like Human Rights Watch are also happy with the UN.

It is still surprising, though, that there is only an indirect indication that war criminals guilty of sexual crimes will face prosecution in the International Criminal Court. Surely the directive should have been firmer and clearer.

It can never be stressed enough how rape is arguably the worst of all war crimes, since besides physical abuse it also leaves behind emotional and psychological scars that are impossible to remove and even time cannot help. **Especially in the Third World, the women’s lot is among the most unenviable. Not only are they treated as low-grade citizens in peace times in most parts, but they also become the most prized war booty in areas where conflicts abound. Horrible as it is, the fate of little girls is seldom any better. **
 
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Persecution/Default.aspx?id=149588
NEW DELHI – Preliminary findings of an ongoing study on gender violence shows that female victims of attacks in Orissa state last Christmas season are struggling with post-traumatic disorders.

The study, conducted by local Christians and led by Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, records accounts of premature births, sexual molestation and attempted rape during the violence that began on Christmas Eve and lasted for more than a week in Kandhamal district. The violence, allegedly led by extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), left at least four Christians dead and 730 houses and 95 churches burned.

According to the study, at least seven Christian women victims are facing psychological disorders. Sabita Digal, 30, from Barakhama village went insane after her close brush with the attackers. On Christmas day, a mob of around 200 Hindu extremists stormed the village and set the house of Christians on fire. Digal, along with other Christians, ran toward a jungle. She fainted from fright and had to be assisted by the others to the jungle, where she remained without food or medicine. The study says that Digal, whose husband is poor and jobless, has been behaving abnormally since then.

Similarly, a 65-year-old nun, Sister Christa, and 30-year-old Anjali Nayak from the Mt. Carmel Convent in Balliguda, still have bouts of anxiety and depression. Lengthy counselling sessions with psychologists have yielded little improvement. While Sister Christa and Nayak were decorating their church for Christmas, a mob came and set the building on fire. There were many unreported cases of attempted rape and molestation during the attacks, Dayal said. “Even nuns suffered physical attacks in the Kandhamal violence,” Dayal told Compass, adding that he had asked the National Commission of Women to inquire into those incidents. He said he would send a detailed report to the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Enquiry Commission, which is investigating into the attacks.

At least two Christian women were raped by Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists and were not willing to report it to police, Dayal said. Due to the stigma of rape in rural parts of India, many victims do not like to disclose or report it.

The study, however, highlights several cases of abuse of women. On December 25, a group of extremists sexually assaulted a 16-year-old Christian girl, Kumari Sonali Digal, from Barakhama village. The incident took place in a jungle near Barakhama, where Christians had fled. As Digal was running along with the other girls to the jungle, a nail pierced her foot and it started bleeding. Left behind, she had to spend the night alone. The following day, she decided to go to a village close by in search of drinking water. On the way, a group of Hindu extremists saw her and assaulted her sexually. One of the boys from the group also put vermilion on her forehead to mark her “conversion” to Hinduism.
The same day, another group of rioters tried to sexually assault five women, including two nuns, and a 17-year-old girl. The five women, Sister Sujata, Sister Sitara Kujur, Jyosona Joni, Ranjita Digal and Padmini Pradhan, along with 17-year-old Rajani Ekka, were hiding under the staircase of the Mt. Carmel Convent’s building in Balliguda. The Hindu extremists had set the building on fire.
 
**Kandhamal: Hindutva’s terror

Charting the history of sangh parivar violence in Orissa

BY ANGANA CHATTERJI
communalism.blogspot.com/2008/02/kandhamal-sangh-parivar-violence-in.html**
“Before the mob came we heard the sound of people approaching. The sound of hatred. Our lives, our faith, our existence is under attack and neither the neighbours, the police nor the state care.” – Dalit Christian woman in Kandhamal

“We are waiting for the next riot. We do not know where it will happen but we know that Kandhamal was a warning, not the end.” – Christian labour organiser
 
**Missionary To Speak of Persecution in India

By Cary McMullen
LEDGER RELIGION EDITOR
theledger.com/article/20080607/NEWS/806070360/1326&title=Missionary_To_Speak_of_Persecution_in_India**
Five extreme religious groups came together to form the BJP. It has one agenda, to make India a totally Hindu nation. The philosophy of ‘Hindutva’ says there should be one culture, one religion,’ he said.

The U.S. State Department’s 2007 International Religious Freedom Report stated, ‘Despite the National Government’s rejection of ‘Hindutva,’ the ideology that espouses the inculcation of Hindu religious and cultural norms above other religious norms, it continued to influence some government policies and actions at the state and local levels. … Some NGOs report that societal violence against religious minorities is part of a larger Hindu nationalist agenda and corresponds with ongoing state electoral politics.’

Seven of India’s 28 states, primarily in the North, have passed anti-conversion laws forbidding the use of force or fraud in religious conversions, but these laws are used as a pretext to level accusations against Christians, Abraham said. Between Dec. 22 and Jan. 15, in Orissa, where the BJP is still in power, 94 churches and 1,500 Christian homes were burned, and 110 people were killed, he said. The police did not intervene, and in some locales, complaining to authorities makes the situation worse, he said.

Amnesty International, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department have received reports about the violence, and because of increased trade relations with America and the West, some in the Indian business community have expressed concern that the violence might have an adverse effect on business.
 
June 26, 2008 **Christian houses demolished in Orissa **
theindiancatholic.com/report.asp?nid=10614
NEW DELHI (ICNS): Under construction houses of 36 Pana tribal Christian families in Kandhamal district of Orissa were demolished on June 24 by the District Administration, says a Christian organization.
The Christians were evicted with the help of some five platoons of Central Reserve Police Force, Orissa Police and bulldozers at the presence of some 1000 Hindu radicals of Sangh Parivar, said a note form Global Council of Indian Christians.

Despite the government’s “tall claims” of peace and normalcy returning to the area, “the people of Kandhamal are still suffering the after-effects” violence they suffered during Christmas 2007, it said.

The violence have only further “empowered the powerful section to suppress and torment the minorities, it said.
 
http://www.doccentre.net/Tod/TOD1_080603zzz1_B.php
To whom it may concern

*I am writing to submit the enclosed sworn statement of fact/affidavit on the violence in Kandhamal district in Orissa that ensued in December 2007. This affidavit has been notarized by a Public Notary.

My statement is based on extensive research on the communalisation of Orissa conducted by me between June 2002-June 2008. I have undertaken over 15 trips to the state since June 2002, including in 66 villages, 11 towns, and 4 cities across 17 districts. I travelled to Kandhamal district in January 2005, after the incidents in Raikia. I travelled to Kandhamal district and visited certain towns and villages again in January 2008, following the violence of December 2007.

In 2005-2006, I co-convened with Advocate Mihir Desai the Indian People’s Tribunal on Communalism in Orissa organised by the Indian People’s Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (IPT). The Tribunal was led by Justice K. K. Usha, Retired Chief Justice of Kerala. The Tribunal was constituted in response to concerns voiced by citizens over the growth of communalism and increased aggression throughout Orissa particularly since the Gujarat 2002 genocide. The Tribunal was targeted by Hindutva, Hindu extremist, activists and women members of the Tribunal threatened, in June 2005.

The findings of the report strongly warned about the formidable extent of mobilisation by the majoritarian communalist group of organisations in Orissa, including in Kandhamal district, and documented their adverse impact of society, economy, culture, and polity in the state. According to the report, the Sangh Parivar group of Hindutva, Hindu supremacist, organisations has* a visible presence* in twenty-five of thirty districts in Orissa. The Tribunal’s report had submitted detailed recommendations for action, which did not invoke any reflection or determination on part of the Government of Orissa or the Central Government.

The State Government of Orissa has been incapable of dealing with, or responding appropriately to, these issues and the serious concerns they pose to democratic governance in the state, and of ensuring the security and sanctity of peoples and groups made vulnerable through majoritarian communalism as perpetrated by Hindu nationalist organisations in the state. These matters and circumstances that led to the Kandhamal violence of December 2007 in Orissa continue to pose a threat to the sanctity and security of human rights in the state, particularly of religious and ethnic minorities, disenfranchised Adivasi and caste groups, and other vulnerable groups such as women and secular organisations, and active individuals across the state. Failure to take preventative action jeopardises rule of law, the right to life and livelihood, freedom of speech, freedom ofmovement, freedom of assembly, freedom of inquiry, and the right to information in Orissa.
 
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