INTERNATIONAL PERSECUTION REPORTS
Christians in Orissa,
India Still Targeted
after Attacks
Victims of Christmas
season violence in
Kandhamal face threats
and ostracism.
By Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI,
Still struggling to
rebuild their homes and
lives after suffering
large-scale attacks last
Christmas season,
Christians in Orissa
state’s Kandhamal
district continue to
face ostracism and
threats from Hindu
nationalists.
Returning from Orissa on
Friday (June 6), the
secretary general of the
All India Christian
Council (AICC) said life
is far from normal more
than five months after
violence in Kandhamal
last Christmas season
that killed at least
four Christians and
burned 730 houses and 95
churches.
“Christians who had
started making a life
for themselves through
running shops and
self-employment were
particular targets –
they are still being
socially boycotted,” Dr.
John Dayal told Compass.
“Even now, many
[Christian] girls cannot
go to school for fear of
molestation after
threats have been issued
to Christians.”
According to an AICC
report, intolerant Hindu
leaders in three
villages near Barakhama
– Salagud, Madagudami,
and Perbapanga – have
ostracized Christian
families. The Christians
are barred from
collecting firewood or
food from the
surrounding jungles and
buying from and selling
anything in local
stores.
“This means they must
travel long distances to
buy construction
materials” to rebuild
their homes destroyed in
the attacks, the report
states. “Not only do
they have to spend more
money for travel but
also for bricks and
other supplies.”
Followers of Laxmananda
Saraswati, a Hindu
nationalist leader
widely believed to have
incited the Christmas
attacks, forcibly took
26 Christians to a
police station near
Kurder village on May
21, according to the
report. Police detained
the Christians,
releasing them only
after friends enlisted
the aid of the district
sub-collector, or deputy
administrative head.
The followers of
Saraswati also stole two
cows belonging to the
Christians. The
Christians had just
bought cattle and were
passing by a rally
organized by Saraswati
when the Hindu
nationalists apprehended
them.
Disappointed in
Government Response
Dayal said he was
“deeply disappointed and
saddened” by the
“lethargic and
insensitive, almost
inhuman, response” of
the federal and the
state governments in the
Kandhamal crisis.
“The monsoons are
setting in, and up to
400 families are without
a roof over their
heads,” he said. “The
Orissa government has
been doling out money in
driblets.”
Grants for destroyed
houses are 50,000 rupees
(US$1,165), and no more
than half of that total
for partially damaged
homes.
“But half-burnt houses
cannot be rebuilt,” he
added. “They have to be
razed to the ground and
built from scratch, and
the government does not
recognize this.”
The cost of rebuilding a
house is at least 85,000
rupees (about US$2,000),
he estimated. “This
means unless the dole is
raised, the victims will
have half-built houses
when the rains come,”
Dayal said. “There is no
option but to move the
courts to get the
government to give the
money.”
Dayal added that apart
from the cost of
construction of houses,
the victims of the
violence have lost a
half a year of income.
“Half a year of labor
has been lost, there is
no livelihood,” he said.
Dire Camp Conditions
Many victims are still
in the jungles fearing
further physical attack,
while hundreds of
displaced Christians in
Kandhamal remain in
various relief camps set
up by the state
government.
Relief camp conditions
are dire, with malaria
running rampant. Dayal
said that after
contracting malaria, a
16-year-old Christian
girl who was apparently
16 weeks pregnant had a
miscarriage in Barakhama
refugee camp. Rashmi,
daughter of Suniya Digal
of Tikarbari village,
had come to the camp
with her parents after
her house was burned in
the Christmas week
violence and her husband
had fled.
The disease along with
the strong anti-malarial
drug she was prescribed
led to complications and
the miscarriage, Dayal
said.
“When [human rights
activist] Teesta
Setalvad was visiting
the Barakhama camp and
saw Rashmi, she knew the
girl was not well,” said
Dayal, who was in
Kandhamal with Setalvad
for an independent
tribunal that heard
testimony of victims on
May 13 and 15. “She
called and asked me to
rush her [Rashmi] to a
hospital, saying she was
on the brink of
septicemia, or blood
poisoning, unless a
gynecologist examined
her immediately and
evacuated the remains of
her pregnancy.”
The four-member tribunal
consisted of former High
Court Justice Hospet
Suresh and Justice Kolse
Patil, former Gujarat
director general of
police R.B. Sreekumar,
and Setalvad. The
tribunal has yet to
release its report.
A government panel to
investigate the
Christmas season
violence, the Justice
Panigrahi Enquiry
commission, will begin a
probe on Saturday (June
14).
The National Commission
for Minorities, which
sent two researchers to
Kandhamal district,
reported on January 17
that the violence was
“organized and
pre-planned.” The team
attributed the
large-scale violence to
the inaction of the
administration. Dayal
also led a fact-finding
team in January that
also concluded the
violence was carried out
in a planned manner.
Hindutva
(Hindu nationalist)
groups, mainly the
extremist Vishwa
Hindu Parishad
(World Hindu Council),
carried out the attacks
under the pretext of
avenging an alleged
assault on Saraswati
after the first
anti-Christian incident
was reported from
Brahmanigaon village.
Provided by
Compass Direct News
