Christian Council suggests major overhaul of bill against communal violence

The following is the text of the letter

Dr. Manmohan Singh

The Prime Minister of India

Your Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh:

Greetings from the All India Christian Council.

We applaud your government for its desire to protect the idea of India – a secular government with equality for all. We welcome the intention to pass a Bill on

communal violence which will add to India’s strong body of laws.

However, the Christian community has deep concerns about the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2009, from the drafts we’ve

read. We humbly request a serious re-write of this legislation. Our main concerns:

1. The Bill doesn’t adequately address the question of hate campaigns and the “communalisation process” (i.e. hate speech published in local language media) that

precede communal violence. This well-studied phenomenon of activities, some already illegal but not often prosecuted, is a root issue.

2. The Bill doesn’t take into account the demography and pattern of living of various communities. Specifically, anti-Christian violence is normally dismissed by

public officials as “sporadic” (although there may be a serious incident daily in some areas). Because other minorities live in concentrated or contiguous areas, those

“communally disturbed areas” are more easily identified. In Orissa, Kandhamal would likely not fit the Bill’s definition but we know what happened there in 2007-2008.

3. The Bill doesn’t give States guidelines on reparations and compensation. We need a uniform national policy as well standards on the assessment of damages after

riots in order to prevent ghettoisation.

4. The Bill doesn’t fully address police and administrative impunity properly or adequately. The “good faith” clause, which exempts police and public servants from

prosecution unless there is permission from the executive branch, is a major concern.

We share concerns, especially voiced by Muslim groups, that the Bill doesn’t fully acknowledge the individual victim, treats communal violence as spontaneous rioters

versus rioters (instead of acknowledging the possibility of premeditated or state-sponsored violence), and gives much power to state

governments which, historically, have occasionally acted in a biased manner. We need to see stronger checks and balances.

Also, we acknowledge that some shortcomings are systemic legal issues better addressed by your government in separate legislation or orders. The most important, in our

humble opinion, include:

• Establishing witness protection programs and guidelines

• Strengthening of National Commission for Minorities and state minority commissions

• Action against police who refuse to register FIRs

• Permanently debarring government officials guilty of involvement in communal violence – or any crime – from government jobs and from contesting any office

• The rights of “internally displaced persons” in relief camps should mirror UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement e.g. including immediate education

for displaced children

Many provisions of the current version of the Bill are acceptable. But we request you to consider the input above so that a weak Bill is not passed which requires the

almost impossible process of securing future amendments.

Our community has learned from recent waves of communal attacks in Orissa and Karnataka as well as ongoing onslaught on house churches, individual pastors/priests and

nuns, and the terrible hate campaigns in newspapers which are officially sponsored by several state governments. Our suggestions are rooted in the reality of rural

India where the vast majority of our members – thousands of Protestant, Catholic, and independent Christian organisations – live and work to improve our beloved

society.

Yours Sincerely and Most Respectfully,

Dr. Joseph D’souza, President, aicc, Hyderabad, dsouza@aiccindia.org

John Dayal, Secretary General, aicc, New Delhi, john.dayal@gmail.com

C.C.:

Shri M. Veerappa Moily, Union Cabinet Minister for Law & Justice

Shri P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs

Shri Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Minority Affairs

Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, Indian National Congress Party

-------------------

Hindustan Times report today:

Amended law to let Centre take charge in riot-hit states

Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Time

r

New Delhi, March 17, 2010

The government’s final version of the communal violence law empowers the Centre to take charge of an area where riots have broken out once it sends in central forces,

if it finds the state government concerned reluctant to act against the rioters.

The new law still does not allow the Centre to send armed forces on its own to a riot-hit spot. But once a state has asked for central forces to quell violence, the

Centre will have the right — under certain circumstances — of setting up a unified command, comprising these forces and the local police.

The amendment was cleared by the Cabinet last December and is expected to come for parliamentary approval next month.

The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, however, says the Centre can declare an area “communally disturbed” and take direct

charge only if the state concerned refuses to act against the violence being perpetrated to such an extent that the secular fabric of the country, or internal

security, is endangered.

To guard against political misuse, the law stipulates that the Centre must

draw the attention of the state government to the deteriorating state of affairs, and set a deadline for it to take necessary steps to suppress the violence.

Until now, central forces deployed in a state worked under the control of the local district administration. But henceforth, in special circumstances, it will work

under the unified command, which will report to the Centre.

The amendment was conceived of in the backdrop of the 2002 Gujarat riots, when it was widely believed the state government had done little to discourage the rioters.

Even so, it is bound to anger state governments who will see it as an encroachment on their powers. Eight of 12 states that responded to a survey by a parliamentary

panel had even opposed an earlier, milder version.

Put off elections in Kandhamal Constituencies

To

Chief Election Commissioner,

Election Commission,

Govt. of India, New Delhi 

 

Sub: Request for postponing the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections 2009 for the constituencies covered under Kandhamal district, Orissa in view of continuing abnormal situation caused by communal violence.  

Sir, 

1.      As announced by your august office the electoral process for forthcoming elections to Lok Sabha and Orissa Legislative Assembly has already commenced for the whole State of Orissa including the district of Kandhamal with effect from 2^nd March 2009 and various political parties have fielded their respective candidates for different constituencies keeping an eye on the two-phase polls to be held on 16^th and 23^rd April 2009.

2.      Needless to reiterate that the first and foremost requirement for holding a free and fair poll is a secure and peaceful environment where the candidates and their supporters do enjoy freedom of movement and speech to go round to every nook and corner of a constituency to meet the voters and canvas votes from them. And at the same time, the socio-cultural environment of the constituencies should be so conducive as to enable citizen who may be willing to speak out, propagate and join in any rally or meeting in favour of a party or candidate of his/her choice.

3.      However, as the entire nation knows, the situation in Kandhamal, greatly disturbed by the continuing communal holocaust since the last week of August 2008 is still very tense and abnormal, completely unsuitable to the possibility of a peaceful electoral process, let alone free and fair polls on the scheduled dates. We cite the following reasons as to why we consider the Kandhamal situation as exceptionally abnormal and therefore unsuitable to the scheduled holding of Lok Sabha and Assembly Polls –

a.       There are still nearly 3,200 persons living in the refugee camps run by the Government in different places of Kandhamal. Their houses were destroyed/burnt away and valuables looted by the communalist miscreants during the riots beginning from last week of August 2008. In the process their Voter Identity Cards were also lost away. The efforts made by the Government to provide the duplicate Voter Identity Cards to these hapless refugees is neither complete nor satisfactory. They know not whether their names are enrolled in the Voters’ List and where they have to go to exercise their franchise.

b.      At a conservative estimate about 50 thousand persons of Kandhamal belonging to minority community of Christians comprising both SCs and STs and Hindu Dalits were affected by the communal violence that raged for months together. While a faction of the affected lot preferred to take shelter in the Government run refugee camps in and outside Kandhamal including Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, a considerable number, out of a mortal fright altogether fled Kandhamal to unknown destinations leaving their house, valuables, cattle and crops behind just to save their life. The worst affected are the women. Till date the Government has not made any survey whatsoever of these people and no body knows where they are at present. There is no possibility at all that such people would ever be able to return within a short span of time to their respective villages, to re-arrange the Voter Identity Cards lost in the riots and exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections. And needless to say, the elections if at all held bypassing such a big faction of Kandhamal electorate would produce a fractured verdict to the glee of rioters and miscreants who always want the election to be held without the affected minority and Dalit members being able to exercise their franchise.

c.       As regards the thousands of members of refugee camps, who as per the Government records have returned to their respective villages, their condition is also equally pitiable. On nagging pressure by the Government officials the refugees, batch after batch, left the camps on different dates supposedly to resume their life in their respective villages. But as soon as they reached their villages, they were threatened by a hostile crowds led by the communalist miscreants with a serious warning, which went on thus - To live in the village, you must leave Christianity, reconvert to Hinduism, pay fine, withdraw all cases and vote for our candidate, otherwise you won’t be allowed to stay on in the village. After getting such hostile treatment some families returned again to the refugee camps and many others left Kandhamal for unknown destinations in and outside the State. The Government has not made any survey of the numbers and present conditions of such families. And there is no possibility at all that these families would ever be able to exercise their franchise in the coming elections.

d.      As is well known, there is increasing incidence of violence in different pockets of Kandhamal by both extremist groups, namely Maoists and M-2. The first group targets the hindutva fundamentalists while the second group, strangely enough, targets its retaliation, not against Maoists as such but against the selected leaders of minority and Dalit community. As a result, the overall atmosphere of Kandhamal is charged with both extremist and communal violence of every sort, leading to cessation of free movement and free expression on the part of the common people. Since the State machinery has conspicuously failed to nab the frontline leaders of such extremist outfits till date, it is also very much likely that they can destroy polling booths and polling process at any place at any time victimizing the common voters in the process.

e.       It is a fact that a section of innocent Adivasis and Dalits were somehow implicated in various non-bailable charges concerning riots, while the real masterminds and ring leaders were let loose by the Government to continue their acts of violence against minority and Dalits. The innocent persons so charged are found to be taking shelter in forests and strange places and leading a life of under-grounder all the while as a part of their hide-and–seek game with police. There is no possibility at all that such innocent Adivasis and Dalits be ever able to participate in the canvassing activities during the electoral process or exercise their franchise in the coming polls.

f. The atmosphere of Kandhamal is still pervaded by the air of communal violence against minority and Dalits as fanned out by the fundamentalist hindutva forces aided by rabidly anti-Dalit verbalizations indulged in by the so-called Kui leaders. And the State machinery instead of nabbing such open advocates of communal and caste violence are found to be providing special protection to some of them and thereby vitiating further the already polarized and communalized society of Kandhamal. In such a situation there is no possibility at all for the poor, unorganized members of minority or Dalit community to come out in the open to participate in the electoral process, let alone caste their votes on the day of polls.

g.       Till recently the leadership of the affected people thought that situation would improve, with the intervention of the state in the context of the elections. But, day by day the scenario it is deteriorating. From different sources I hear that as the election is fast approaching many those who are in Kandhamal fearing backlash, are planning to leave Kandhamal.

 

Under the circumstances, when there is no possibility on the part of a massive chunk of Kandhamal electorate comprising especially the minority Christians and Hindu Dalits to take part in the electoral process as free citizens and when the entire atmosphere of Kandhamal is still rent with aggressive communalism and extremist violence, and when the State machinery can’t possibly restore justice, peace and harmony in the given short span of time, and above all when there is no possibility of the people of Kandhamal exercising their right to vote freely and fearlessly, I as citizen of this country and leader of the Christians in Orissa, Most Rev. Raphael Cheenath SVD, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, earnestly request that the proposed elections to Lok Sabha and Orissa Legislative Assembly in all constituencies of Kandhamal district be postponed to a future date, when an ideal situation will have been restored in full. 

 

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath,

Archbishop’s House,

Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 

Copies to:

1.      The President of India

2.      The Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India

3.      The Chief Justice, Orissa High Court

4.      Chairperson, National Commission for Minorities

5.      Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission

6.      Chairperson, National Commission for Women

7.      Chairperson, National Scheduled Castes Commission

8.      State Election Commissioner

-- 

 

Something to know

A WARNING SIGNAL

While today’s Abhinav Bharat belongs to an old tradition harking back to Savarkar and even Tilak, the new element here lies in the implication of one serving officer of the Indian army. Certainly, any institution can have a black sheep. But was he that isolated? He has already named other officers who would have been his more or less passive accomplices and his colleague, Upadhyay, who once headed the Mumbai unit of the BJP’s ex-servicemen cell. The BJP, indeed, inducted ex-army men in large numbers since the 1990s. After the BJP came to power in 1998, two dozens ex-servicemen more joined the party. This inflow of ex-army men may reflect the increasingly communal atmosphere of the institution. In December 2003, a survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for Tehelka, one of the first among army men — and probably the most comprehensive — showed that 19 per cent of the soldiers interviewed felt that the army practised some religious discrimination — and 24 per cent of the Muslims among them shared this view. 

Instead of distancing itself from the Hindu terrorists, as it had done in the 1940s, this time the Sangh Parivar has decided to support the Malegaon accused. Bajrang Dal chief Prakash Sharma declared that “policy makers should be worried if the Hindus were taking to arms because of the government’s skewed approach to war on terror” and admitted that the Bajrang Dal was running training camps too “to boost their morale [the Bajrang Dal’s members]. The country wouldn’t get its Abhinav Bindras if there were no armed training for the youth”.

[The writer is Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist and South Asia specialist at CERI, Paris]

BETWEEN HOPE AND HOPLESSNESS

THE INDIA UPDATE

ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE SINCE AUGUST 24, 2008

Updated 20^th January 2009

 1. ORISSA         Ten years after the Christmas violence in the Dangs district of Gujarat  in 1998, and the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines, on 22 January 1999, in Orissa, anti Christian violence has not just grown in the two regions, but has spread to other states such as Karnataka. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.  Karnataka, in fact, has now surpassed Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which were earlier the main areas witnessing persecution. In Orissa, where violence broke out between 24 to 27 December 2007 and then again between 24 August 2008 till the end of the year, a chilling tension still pervades the worst affected district of Kandhamal. And in government camps in G Udaygiri and Raikia in Kandhamal, more than Eight Thousand refugees live a life of torment, humiliation and unemployment. The un-totaled thousands in small and big Church-run camps outside Kandhamal and even deep in Andhra Pradesh that have little coordination with each other, people face an uncertain future. And perhaps 30,000 people still escape to the forests every night to sleep the night in the safety of raw nature, for fear of the marauding gangs. During sunlight hours, they attempt to harvest the paddy crop in the safer areas. Christian and Civil Society groups tried unsuccessfully to move the Courts to stop a government move to forcibly send back people from refugee camps back to distant villages without providing adequate security and employment. The Central Reserve Police Force has begun to thin out from its peak strength of 6,000 on the eve of Christmas, despite earnest requests to government to maintain sufficient numbers to bring confidence to the battered people. Criminal Investigation Department police are making some headway in the investigations in the rape of the Catholic nun, and that of another woman, a Hindu brutalized because her uncle had converted to Christianity. But police also admit that they will have to "trim" the list of about 70,000 persons named as aggressors in over in 746 cases to manageable numbers. The new Director General of Police feels that in each case only a clutch of principal accused can be investigated. So far 598 accused have been actually arrested. Christians have told investigators that many of the aggressors are still roaming free, and some murder suspects have even come to the government refugee camps. The death toll remains a matter of dispute. Human rights groups have a total of 120 names of persons of whom 103 are confirmed dead, and 17 are those whose names are not known, but are known only by their relationship with some villagers. Though there have been several other incidents in Orissa in December and mid January 2009, they have not been directly linked with the earlier sequence of violence. Reconstruction of the houses is yet to begin, and churches await the government assistance promised them by the Government after the intervention of the Supreme Court of India.

 A brief recall of major persecution:

ORISSA:         

14 (of 30)         Districts hit

315                  Villages destroyed

4,640               Houses burnt [State government estimates 4,215]

54,000             Homeless initially

120                  People murdered

7                      Priests/ Pastors killed

10                    Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured

 2                     Rapes confirmed [One of Nun]

252                   Churches destroyed [estimated by State government]

13                      Schools, colleges destroyed

2. KARNATAKA      

 8 (of 29)           Districts affected

33                    Churches attacked update again

 53                    Christians injured in attacks, including Nuns assaulted by state police.

3. TAMIL NADU                     

 12                     Churches attacked

 4. MADHYA PRADESH    

5                       Churches damaged

5. KERALA  

4                      Churches damaged

 6. DELHI                        

 2         Churches damaged/destroyed 

[This update does not include incidents of violence and persecution witnessed in many other states, but not linked with the August 2008 outbreak.]

AND LEST WE FORGET

The decadal growth of the Sangh Parivar in Orissa from the martyrdom of Graham Stuart Staines and his sons on January 22, 1999, and of Father Bernard digal in the violence of August 2008

RSS the mother organization now has 6,000 shakhas with a 1,50,000 plus cadre.

 

The VHP has 1,25,000 primary workers in Orissa.

 

The Bajrang Dal has 50,000 activists working in 200 shakhas.

 

The ruling  Bharatiya Janata Party has above 4,50,000 workers.

 

 The Durga Vahini, the women’s group has 7,000 outfits in 117 sites.

 

The Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, another gender group, has 80 centres

 

Bharatiya Majdoor [labour] Sangh manages 171 trade unions with a cadre of 1,82,000 members.

 

 The strong Bharatiya Kisan [farmers] Sangh has 30,000 in 100 blocks.

 

Other  Sangh front organisations include Friends of Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust,

Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan, Eklavya Vidyalayas [schools], Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and Parishads , Vivekananda Kendras, Shikha Vikas Samitis and Sewa Bharatis.

Kandhamal district, one of Orissa’s thirty, has 2,415 villages, the two towns of Phulbani and Balliguda.

 

Orissa’s 36.8 million population has a mere 2.4 per cent Christians, 2.1 per cent Muslims.

 

[Data courtesy Census of India, Survey of India, Prof Angana Chatterji [US] and others]

John Dayal, 19^th January 2009

Christmas in Orissa under close scrutiny

 

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

 

 NEW DELHI – Dec. 22, 2008: Despite the cancelation of a state-wide bandh (strike) by ultra-nationalist Hindu groups, Christians in Orissa state are worried about possible anti-Christian violence over Christmas. 

Indian media reports on Dec. 20, 2008 said the rightwing Hindu group, the Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati Shraddhanjali Samiti, met with Orissa’s Chief Minister and agreed to call off a state-wide shut-down planned for Dec. 25. However, aicc Orissa state leaders said the group was planning prayers from 5:10-5:40pm on Dec. 25th in temples across the state. There are fears the people gathered at each temple could be incited to attack Christians. The Samiti, which has called temples campaign, has been set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, the two groups responsible for the December 2007 and August-October 2008 violence in the state

The 12 hour bandh was announced in mid-November if authorities failed to arrest the killers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Lakhmanananda Saraswati by December 15, 2008. The murder of the religio-political leader on Aug. 23, 2008 triggered widespread anti-Christian violence despite claims of responsibility from Maoist militants.

 John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “We appreciate Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik for doing the right thing and successfully urging Hindutva groups to call off their planned bandh. However, the government in Orissa – for that matter, in all states across India – must now ensure mischief makers do not sabotage the peace of the Christmas holidays.”

 Aicc is making plans to have teams of observers in Orissa to alert authorities should any violence begin. Plans called for teams to include both Christians and non-Christians – especially non-sectarian minded Hindus.

 Dayal said, “We encourage Indian Christians to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in a peaceful and harmonious manner. Christians across our great land must pray for the approximately 50,000 Dalit and Tribal Christians who will spend Christmas away from their damaged and destroyed homes. For many, this will be their second Christmas as refugees inside their own country.”

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

Christmas in Orissa under close scrutiny

 

Christian Council cautions against mischief-makers

 

 NEW DELHI – Dec. 22, 2008: Despite the cancelation of a state-wide bandh (strike) by ultra-nationalist Hindu groups, Christians in Orissa state are worried about possible anti-Christian violence over Christmas. 

Indian media reports on Dec. 20, 2008 said the rightwing Hindu group, the Swami Lakhmanananda Saraswati Shraddhanjali Samiti, met with Orissa’s Chief Minister and agreed to call off a state-wide shut-down planned for Dec. 25. However, aicc Orissa state leaders said the group was planning prayers from 5:10-5:40pm on Dec. 25th in temples across the state. There are fears the people gathered at each temple could be incited to attack Christians. The Samiti, which has called temples campaign, has been set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, the two groups responsible for the December 2007 and August-October 2008 violence in the state

The 12 hour bandh was announced in mid-November if authorities failed to arrest the killers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Lakhmanananda Saraswati by December 15, 2008. The murder of the religio-political leader on Aug. 23, 2008 triggered widespread anti-Christian violence despite claims of responsibility from Maoist militants.

 John Dayal, aicc Secretary General, said, “We appreciate Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik for doing the right thing and successfully urging Hindutva groups to call off their planned bandh. However, the government in Orissa – for that matter, in all states across India – must now ensure mischief makers do not sabotage the peace of the Christmas holidays.”

 Aicc is making plans to have teams of observers in Orissa to alert authorities should any violence begin. Plans called for teams to include both Christians and non-Christians – especially non-sectarian minded Hindus.

 Dayal said, “We encourage Indian Christians to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in a peaceful and harmonious manner. Christians across our great land must pray for the approximately 50,000 Dalit and Tribal Christians who will spend Christmas away from their damaged and destroyed homes. For many, this will be their second Christmas as refugees inside their own country.”

Memo to the Indian President

Memorandum to the Honourable The President of India
Through
Honourable the Governors of Punjab, Haryana
and the Administrator of Chandigarh

Chandigarh, November 20, 2008

Respected President

Greetings from the Christians of Chandigarh and surrounding districts of Punjab and Haryana who marched through the streets of Chandigarh this morning in a peaceful rally to present this Memorandum to you as Head of State and Defender of the Constitution.

1. We seek your urgent intervention to ensure security and justice for our community in Orissa and Karnataka, the worst hit in the fundamentalist violence through several months of the year 2008. Over 50,000 Christian men, women and children of Kandhamal fear they will celebrate Christmas 2008 as refugees hiding for their lives in the forests of Kandhamal district in Orissa, in ill-kept refugee camps in the state or as internally displaced persons seeking safety and a livelihood in various cities of the country. They remain hounded by memories of Christmas 2007 which 1,000 of them spent in the forests after the first attacks. The situation in Orissa, Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh continues to be terrible despite assurances by Central and state governments.
2. In Orissa and other states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party, the police forces and the subordinate criminal justice apparatus had been heavily infiltrated by the communal ideology of the Sangh Parivar. The result was that the police was a mute bystander and often an active participant in attacks on Christian houses of worship and gatherings, and assaults on priests. This state of impunity must end There also have been many cases of sexual violence. Cases were often not registered, and tragically, it was the victim Christians who ended up facing the wrath of the government. A hate campaign continues unabated in the media and on the streets, targeting Christians and their faith, questioning their patriotism and stigmatizing their religious personnel.
3. The All India Christian Council has recorded the following: the states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal have been severely affected. In Orissa, over 4,500 houses have been burnt and 300 villages purged of all Christians in the worst case of “ethnic cleansing” in Independent India. Over 50,000 are homeless, ten thousand of them in government camps. We have the names of Sixty dead and close to Ninety men are still reported missing and may be dead in the forest. Independent probes have spoken of clandestine disposal of bodies. School children are without education, babies without infant food, and families without warm clothes in the cold hill tract.
4. We must caution that while the situation was comparatively peaceful in Punjab and Haryana, reports had started coming in of communal gangs terrorizing Home Churches and small congregations in small towns.
5. The Union and State governments must immediately crack down on hate campaigns and ensure justice. The Anti Communal Violence Bill, which was initially rejected by civil society because it was lopsided, must be immediately revised and brought into force, by an Ordinance if necessary after consulting all minority communities, the Memorandum said.
6. The Centre must use Constitutional provisions to ensure that State governments implement guarantees of freedom of faith and protection of the homes, places of worship, and livelihood the religious minorities. At present, criminal gangs are roaming free. Central forces that have been sent to Orissa, for instance, have not been able to rescue those in the forests for want of effective coordination with the state machinery.
7. There is also little justice in the relief, rehabilitation and compensation procedures. The victims of Orissa have been given a pittance. Even the victims of December 2007 violence have not been able to build their houses. Churches, burnt down by communal forces, must be rebuilt at State expense. The governments and the aggressors cannot evade their culpability and responsibility. The Church cannot continue to rebuild places of worship only to see them demolished and burnt by criminal gangs of a particular ideology, the Memorandum said.
8. We re-affirm the demand by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the National Council of Churches in India and the All India Christian Council that the Central Bureau of Investigation probe major cases, including that of the rape of a Catholic Nun in Kandhamal in August 2008.
9. Justice to the Christian community cannot be complete without accepting the just demands of the Dalit Christians for Scheduled Caste Status at par with their brethren in the Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu faiths, the Memorandum said. The sixty year old struggle for a fair deal, supported by several National Commissions, appeals to the basic tenets of Equality and Affirmative Action enshrined in the Constitution of India, the Memorandum added.
Thank you
Sincerely
On behalf of the Rally of thousands of Christians of Chandigarh and nearby districts of Punjab and Haryana
Signed by
Fr Thomas, Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Shimla-Chandigarh
Dr John Dayal, Member, national Integration Council and Secretary Gen4eral, All India Christian Council
Dr Sam Paul, National Secretary, All India Christian Council

Focus on plight of Women and Children in Kandhamal, Orissa

AIDWA REPORT ORISSA NOVEMBER 2008

[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: The following is the report of the delegation of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, the Women’s wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist, which visited Orissa including Kandhamal earlier in November 2008, met with the victims and later also met with the Orissa Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Pattnaik.]

4000 houses damaged, burnt and broken down; innumerable churches and Christian prayer halls destroyed; many shops belonging to Christians reduced to rubble; 35 persons killed in rioting; two women, a nun and a minor girl, gang-raped. And all this in a district, Kandhamal, Orissa with a population of about six and a half lakhs of whom about one and half lakhs are Christians.

An Aidwa delegation comprising of Shyamali Gupta (Working President), Sudha Sundararaman (General Secretary), Tapasi Praharaj and Pushpa Das (President and Secretary of the Orissa State unit of AIDWA) and myself visited Kandhamal District of Orissa on the 1st and 2nd of November, 2008. The district had been completely out of bounds to all organizations except some intrepid media persons from the third week of September till the 6th of October.

Even two months after the gory incidents of loot, killing and mayhem that followed the horrific killing of Lakhmanananda Saraswati of the VHP and four of his colleagues that included one woman, this most beautiful region of forests, mountains, streams and birds remained a place of fear, mistrust and terrible scars.

Our delegation visited some of the camps to which those whose homes were burnt and damaged fled. At the peak of the violence, there were more than a dozen camps opened and run by the State Govt. sheltering about 25, 000 inmates. In addition, camps have been opened by Christian organizations in the area and in Bhubaneswar and many of the victims have also taken shelter with relatives elsewhere or migrated to other states. The killing occurred on 23rd August and, despite the fact that Maoist leaders publicly announced that they were responsible; VHP and other Sangh Parivar leaders incited their followers to attack Christians to take revenge. The administration explains its very delayed response to the fact that it was overtaken by the events. But this cannot be totally acceptable. After the attacks on Christians that occurred in the district around Christmas, 2007, there should have been many more preventive measures taken. The fact that Orissa has a BJD-BJP Government is also responsible for the fact that the Sangh Parivar has been given a fairly free hand to stoke enmity and hatred against the Christian population of the area.

The camp our delegation visited was at Tikabali situated in the Govt. High School. The local administration was quite co-operative and did not interfere with our interaction with the people in the camp. The number of people has halved to about 750. Many have gone back to their villages and others have gone to other places in search of work. So far, no one who has returned home has come back because of intimidation or attacks. We spoke to many of the families still in the camps. Most of them do visit their villages during the day a few times every week. Some have fields just outside their villages that they are tending, others have land in the villages. Their stories are mixed. Some say that they do not feel threatened by their old neighbours but that ‘outside forces’ are not allowing their neighbours to take them back; others say that they are being asked to become Hindus before they will be allowed home and still others say that they are fearful of going home.

We met the camp secretary, Bikram Pradhan, from Kottadi village of Gardingia Block, one of the badly affected regions. He said that they had registered group FIRs those who had burnt their homes who were all people known to them. Now they were registering individual FIRs also. He made a very significant point that only a small section of those belonging to the majority community attacked them and many of their neighbours had helped them by storing their possessions, safeguarding their cattle, and even by trying to put out the flames. These deeds did not, however, go unpunished. He said that Siddheshwar Pradhan who was trying to help them was actually burnt to death. (This has been corroborated by the district administration). The kind of hatred that has been stoked is illustrated by what Monoranjan Digal from Budkinaju said – a Christian belonging to Santhaguda village could not be buried there even after the intervention of the BDO and had finally to be buried near the camp.

Living in camps for so long and not knowing when they will be able to return to a normal life has created many problems. Priya Kumari Digal, from Behra village, is a young girl doing her + 2. She said that in her village, the entire majority community of about 300 people turned against the 45 Christian families forced them to flee. She said that while younger children were being taught within the camp, but older students like herself could not pursue their studies without books and teachers. She was worried as to how she would prepare for the exams which were due in December. Another young blind girl, Jhujhunrani, who was studying in the IInd year was also worried – all her books, including those in Braille, had been burnt.

Priyotima Digal also from Behra village, who was a member of the SHG group called Jeevan Jyoti said that the grain meant for mid-day meals prepared by her group was stored in her home and had been destroyed. Other SHG members said that money that they had withdrawn from the banks or collected from their members had also been lost and they were worried that the banks would initiate recovery proceedings. The inmates also complained about the fact that they had received only one set of clothing and also had no soap, oil etc. They were very positive to our suggestion that NREGA works could be started near the camp

Later, our delegation members also met the Pradhanacharya, Jagabandhu Das, of Lakhmanananda Saraswati’s ashram at Chhakkapar. Very young boys live and study here and we saw many of them being ordered to perform menial tasks like sweeping, swabbing, washing clothes, cutting vegetables etc. by men in khaki shorts. The Pradhanacharya was told that our organization was deeply concerned about the restoration of peace and also about the terrible attacks that had taken place. He was quite cold-blooded in his response and said that the attacks were a ‘natural reaction’ to the murders of August 23rd and that the Christians had been involved in these one way or the other and that the victims could return to their villages only if they accepted ‘certain conditions’ and withdrew all cases.


After this, we met the Collector, Krishan Kumar and the SDM, Vinay Krishan at the District Headquarter, Phulbani. He had a detailed discussion with us and agreed to provide the camp inmates with books and other necessities. He said that a lot of effort was being made to see that those going back were not only safe but started to become integrated into their villages again. He said they were starting NREGA in every village and would see that all those returning from the camps got jobs irrespective of registration or lack of Job Cards. They would be paid in cash since most of them had lost their passbooks etc. Brick-making would also be started so that when the reconstruction of burnt homes began, bricks would be available. He also said that they would try to create smaller camps nearer the villages of the inmates so that they could look after their fields and also be near their homes and former neighbours.

We went to the Balliguda Sub-division the next morning. On the way we passed many villages and small market-places where there was much evidence of terrible destruction. There were still ashes, burnt books and burnt clothes lying in front of many of the homes. We also passed through K. Nuagan where the large Mission building and school buildings stood desolate and desecrated. This was the place that had seen the public sexual assault on Sister Meena. There is a large camp here with more than 2000 victims.

The camp in Balliguda has been wound up and, according to the sub collector, all the former inmates have gone back to their villages. We visited one of these villages, Mediakia to which 27 families had returned. We were able to speak to most of these people and also saw for ourselves that a NREGA worksite had been started and most of them were getting work on it. Poor people belonging to the majority community were also getting work but they were working at another part of the site. All the Christians in the villages had suffered tremendous damage during the attacks. Many had also lost their animals though some also said that their neighbours had managed to save a few. All of them had started receiving compensation for re-building their homes. We were able to talk to them at length and they told us that they were not feeling threatened at the moment.

We also met some of the tribal men who were working at another part of the work-site. They were not very forthcoming with information about the attacks but did say that they were sure that they would not be repeated. They said many peace-meetings were being held. They were also very happy that the NREGA work had started and said that if this was continued throughout the year, it would have a very positive impact. Many of them were forced to go as far away as Kerala to find work. None of them voiced any anger against their Christian neighbours.

On the 3rd, we met the Chief Minister of Orissa and gave him our memorandum. As far as the problems of the victims in camps were concerned, he was very positive and issued some orders (about text-books, clothes etc.) in our presence. He also assured us that he would not spare the communal elements responsible for the attacks. When we requested him to accede to Sister Meena’s demand for a CBI enquiry into the atrocities and gang-rape that she had suffered, he expressed his inability to do so but said that he was committed to ensuring justice. 5 policemen had been suspended and 9 persons arrested and he was willing for the investigations being carried out by his officers in any place chosen by Sister Meena.

Kandhamal has many lessons to be learnt. The devious and hateful ways in which religion is being used by the Sangh Parivar to divide the poorest of the poor and to incite violent attacks on very vulnerable members of minority communities have created a very dangerous situation in a very sensitive part of our country. Other religious forces also work in a way that accentuate religious divides and this has exacerbated the problem here. Today, the Maoists are also fishing in these very troubled waters.

The lesson to be learned is two-fold: the State cannot withdraw from its responsibilities as far as the providing of education and livelihood opportunities is concerned and it cannot afford to give any space and opportunity to the Sangh Parivar to incite violence and hatred in the name of religion.

Subhashini Ali, President, AIDWA

Bishops call Orissa CM's bluff

Text of letter by the Bishops of Orissa to the Chief Minister on 10th November 2008
Shri Naveen Pattnaik
Hon’ble Chief Minister
Government of Orissa
Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
Date: 10th November 2008.

Respected Sir,

First of all we want to convey to you our sincere thanks and appreciation for giving us this appointment to meet you.

Further we want to place before you the following points for your kind consideration and necessary action on an emergency basis.

1. The Exodus of Christians from Kandhamal District: There is considerable reduction of refugees in Relief Camps (from 24,000 to 11,000). The claim that those who leave the relief camps are going back to their own villages and settling down in their homes is not true. Most of them have migrated to relief camps in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jhanla, Berhampur and also settled down in rented houses and in the homes of relations, friends, acquaintances etc. It is estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 Christians of Kandhamal district are living outside the district.

A large number of Christians of Kandhamal district have gone to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat etc. People in the relief camps of the costal belts, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur etc. want to return to their villages, but are afraid because of the reasons (a) They may be attacked on the way or in their own villages (b) They are forced to become Hindus under pain of death or loss of properties. They are told to become Hindus or leave the village, the district or even India (c) Many are unwilling to return because the criminals are still at large and moving about with swords, guns, weapons etc. as in Kothingia/Tiangia of Raikia block and Sarangodo block.
The Christians who have returned to their own villages and homes are forcibly converted to Hinduism; they are forced to accept Hindu Samskaras under oath and under pain of divine punishment. Their movements and meeting with people are restricted by the fanatics for instance in Padangi, Sankarakhol.
2. Acts of injustices against Christians.
a) Christians are chased away from their homes and villages.

b) Even though the State Govt. had promised to allot land to the landless (after the last attack) it has not yet been done. Many do not get money for the gutted down houses or damaged houses because the administration applies rules absolutely and strictly to the Christians in such a way that the landless will not get allotment of land or they even loose what they have.

c) A man was not allowed to be buried in the village as he did not become a Hindu in village Sarthaguda of Tikabali block.

d) Christians are not allowed to harvest the paddy from their own fields in many Gram Panchayats if they do not become Hindus.

3. Looting of houses, Churches & Religious Houses.: As the people had fled out of threat and fear criminals are looting the homes, churches, religious houses, institutions and destroying/burning whatever is left over.

4. Non Acceptance of FIRs: FIRs are not accepted in Daringabadi and Sarangoda Police Stations.

5. Attack on Christians is not an Ethnic Conflict: Hindu Fundamentalist groups have been trying to name the communal violence as an Ethnic Conflict between the Tribals and the Pano Christians. A cursory look at facts reveals that this conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal district, Orissa, in order to realize the hidden agenda of Sangh Parivar of establishing a Hindu Nation. Therefore to keep the hidden agenda a secret they have tried to manipulate the facts:

- That the victims of attack were Christians

-That not only Panos but Christian Tribals also were killed, their homes and properties burned, destroyed and looted (list attached).

6 Fast Tract Court: We are happy that the state Govt. has decided to establish FTC at Kandhamal for expeditious trial of cases relating to communal violence. Looking at the geographical area it is suggested that the said Fast Tract Court may be set up at G. Udaygiri as it is centrally located to all the villages that have been affected by violence. Further it is requested that the Judge of the FTC should be from any other religion other than from Christian or Hindu Religion.

7. Request the presence of Central Forces in Kandhamal Dist: The Hate campaign beginning from 23rd August 2008 has been targeted to polarize religious groups and will affect peace process during restoration stages till the Parliament & Assembly Elections in Orissa are over. The Christian victims now in relief camps and those who have taken distress departure from Kandhamal are afraid of further attacks as the State Police are few and who even cannot defend themselves and their outposts. Hence we request that the presence of Central Forces be extended till the Parliament and Assembly Elections in Orissa are over.

8. Churches be built/repaired by 1st week of December 2008: This will allow Christmas spiritual preparations to begin and spiritual traditions to be observed. This will also help confidence building among the congregations and bury the past quietly as they approach Christmas 2008.

Thanking You
Yours faithfully

Dr. Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar
Dr. T. Thiruthalil, Bishop of Balasore
Dr. Sarat Nayak, Bishop of Berhampur

AIDWA meeting Chief Justice of India for Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Nun's gang rape in Orissa

PRESS RELEASE
31 OCTOBER 2008

AIDWA TO MEET CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA SEEKING CBI PROBE INTO NUN’S GANG RAPE

The All India Democratic Women’s Association [AIDWA], the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist has in a compassionate letter to the Catholic Nun who was gang raped in Kandhamal, Orissa, said it would ask the Chief Justice of India to order a CBI enquiry into the assault on her.

AIDWA is the most major of a large number of national women’s organisations who have expressed deep concern at the plight of the Nun who was tortured in the anti Christian violence in Orissa which continues since it started on 24 August 20-07.

Left parties are perhaps the only political groups to have held protest demonstrations in the Kandhamal district capital Phulbani and the state capital Bhubaneswar against the anti Christian orgy of violence by Hindutva elements.

The Nun was gang raped by a Hindutva nun while police watched. She was taken away from the police and tortured again. A third time, the police abandoned her while they were coming to hospital in Bhubaneswar by bus.

The Nun said she had no faith in the Orissa police and beseeched the Supreme Court of India through her counsel for an enquiry by the federal agency, Central Bureau of Investigation. This was opposed by the state government which wants its own police to carry on the investigation. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the Nun. The Nun later addressed the media with the story of her ordeal.

The following is the text of the letter by Subhashini Ali, President , and Sudha Sunderaraman, General Secretary, of WIDWA sent to Dr John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council, for sending to the Nun:
“Dear Sister

On behalf of all the more than one crore members of our orgnisation, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), we extend our heartfelt support and solidarity in this extremely difficult and traumatic time. We appreciate your courage and your brave struggle for justice and would like to assure you that you are not alone. We and many, many others are with you.

After December, 2007, when the attacks on Christians, their churches, their shops and their homes started in Kandhamal, AIDWA has been protesting against these and demanding stringent action against the perpetrators. Many of our units in different parts of the country have also organized strong protests. After your recent press conference at which you spoke so movingly and with such dignity about the horrors you had not only witnessed but also been subjected to, we have sent telegrams from every state in the country to the Chief Minister of Orissa demanding that the investigation into your complaint be transferred to the CBI. We are also planning to meet the Chief Justice of India after he returns to the country to make the same request to him

We know that you are going through an extremely difficult time. Whenever it is convenient for you, we would be privileged to meet with you personally. If there is anything you would like us to do, please do not hesitate to let us know.
An AIDWA delegation, of which both of us will be part, will be visiting Kandhamal on the 1st and 2nd of November.

We are also extremely saddened by the tragic death of Father Digal. Our sincere condolences to all of you in this moment of great loss.

We are yours in solidarity,

Subhashini Ali, President and Sudha Sunderaraman, General Secretary, AIDWA”

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CUTTACK,

ARCHBISHOP RAPHAEL CHEENATH S.V.D.

1. With respect to the communal violence that began in Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa in December, 2007 the state government has appointed the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Inquiry. Similarly, with respect to the communal violence that flared up in August 2008 in different parts of Orissa, which continues unabated, the state government has appointed the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission of Inquiry.

2. I am profoundly distressed by the fact that the Chief Minister did not consult the victim community before deciding on the persons to head these Commissions. The very least that is expected from the state government is that it take the victim community into confidence so that the Commissions of Inquiries are headed by persons who are, in the perception of the victim community, both independent and strong willed enough to hold the officers of the state responsible. The present appointments have been made in haste disregarding the point of view of the victim communities.

3. Our experiences before the Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission have been demoralizing to say the least. Advocates for the victim communities appeared before Justice Panigrahi and filed statements on behalf of approximately 275 victims and others. They began full-hearted participation in the inquiry despite their reservations as to the independence of the Commission. Their confidence was shaken when the second round of attacks began and they informed Justice Panigrahi that not only the Christian community but also some of the advocates representing the victims had come under the threat of assault and they therefore requested Justice Panigrahi to adjourn the hearing for two months. Justice Panigrahi refused. It became impossible for the victim community and their advocates to participate freely in the Commission. Victims were without food, houses were being burnt, people were being killed; all this was pointed out to Justice Panigrahi and a most reasonable request was made to keep the Commission in abeyance until matters settled down.

4. Not only was the request refused but the Commission is proceeding in undue haste. Some members of the victim community undoubtedly manage to attend but the leading team of lawyers and the main victims cannot attend. It is also very difficult to travel within Kandhamal to meet the victims and prepare them for the proceedings. They have been traumatized and are scared and need to be given confidence to speak out. This is especially so because the assailants are still roaming free in the villages and may, in all likelihood, attack the witnesses for deposing before the Commission. It was expected of the Commission that it would have some sensitivity in respect of witness protection to maintain the sanctity of the Commission proceedings; but this is not so. A formal order has been made but no protection on the ground is available.

5. This leads me to the conclusion that the Justice Panigrahi Commission is more interested in covering up the misdeeds of the state government and its police force whose actions have been truly shameful, rather than to identify the organisations and prominent individuals behind the fascistic attacks. The Commission wishes to produce its report in undue haste with a view to giving the Chief Minister and his officers a clean chit. In the circumstances I have no hesitation in stating that I have no faith whatsoever in the Justice Panigrahi Commission.
2

6. This view also holds good for the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission. I have nothing against Justice Panigrahi or Justice Mohapatra personally. But I do protest the appointment being made unilaterally without consultation with the victim community. He to has issued notice to the victim community in the middle of all this violence to file affidavits by the 15th of November, 2008. Such a formal approach displays an insensitivity to the suffering of the victims. Victims who do not know where their next meal is coming from or those who are hiding in the forests are hardly likely to be able to identify an advocate and meet the prescribed deadline. What these Commissions need is a person of dynamism like Justice Krishna Iyer with a compassionate heart and a deep social understanding of the nature of communal riots. Perhaps the state government ought to have approached Mr. Justice B.N. Srikrishna who headed the Commission of Inquiry in respect of the Bombay massacres. Such judges would indeed have inspired confidence. Sadly this is not the case. I do not have confidence that the Justice Mohapatra Commission will indeed do
justice to the victims in Orissa.

7. I am constrained to release this statement because there is, particularly of late, a distressing tendency to avoid naming and catching the culprits immediately and to waste time by appointing Commissions with pliant persons heading them in order to protract the conflict and to get political benefits by stigmatizing minority communities. This strategy will not work. The people of Orissa as indeed the people of the world know who the assailants are. This is no secret. What it needs is not an Inquiry for the truth is well known. It needs the political will to do what is right in accordance with the Constitution of India and the laws of this land.

8. In this, I do believe that I have the support of all religious communities in India. I do believe I have the support of those professing the Hindu religion in India as well. Hinduism is a religion of peace, nonviolence and tolerance. I am a profound admirer of the philosophical and religious tenets of Hinduism. I can therefore say with absolute certainty that those who attacked Christians in the name of religion are profoundly anti-hindu and also anti-national. They seek to divide and thus weaken our wonderful nation of kind hearted and generous people.

9. This is why I am so utterly distressed that our national leadership does not appear to be capable of actingbravely and decisively with compassion and clarity to challenge these fascist forces that have divided thenation and committed so many horrendous crimes again and again. What is at stake in the communal attacks in Orissa is not just the future of the Christian community and its security and safety, but the future of our democratic nation itself.

10. May God help us all.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D.
Archbishop of Cuttack – Bhubaneswar
22.10.08

Home Ministers of Orissa, Karnataka must be sacked

5th October 2008

Orissa-like terror stalks Christians in Karnataka interiors; Hindutva vigilante groups stalk Pastors, visitors

State home minister VS Acharya, senior Police officers must be sacked

Police ordering village churches not to hold Sunday worship, submit `Licences’ to hold prayers;

[The following is the text of the Press statement issued to the media in Mangalore, Karnataka, by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, and Member, National Integration Council of the Government of India, after a tour of the rural churches in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka on 4th and 5th October 2008]

A two day tour of rural Christian churches in the forested hill villages and plantations of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka makes it clear that Christians in areas outside the metropolitan areas of Bangalore and Mangalore have lived a life of fear since 14 September not much different from the terror that stalks the Dalits and Tribals of Kandhamal in distant Orissa. Although the violence was only on one day in most places, people fear they may be attacked again anytime in the future.

The devastation of major Catholic and Protestant places of worship in Mangalore city, the attack on women and specially the beating up of Nuns, has correctly shocked the conscience of the majority community in Karnataka and the rest of India as much as has the rape of the Nun in Orissa.

But this other side remains dark, beyond the glare of media. The VHP and the police are making full use of the interlude to ensure that the law cannot take it due course and the culprits who came in well orchestrated attacks will never be caught.

The mocking tone of the State Home Minister, V S Acharya, his pugnacious and continuing oral attacks on the Church and on the Catholic Archbishop and Bishops, his threats to the New Life Church and its pastors, his defence of the Hindutva Parivar, and his encouragement to religious groups to demand bans and moratoriums on `conversions’, clearly show his commitment to the fascist cause.

The formal Constitutional position of Home Minister Acharya is untenable and the Governor and Chief Minister must sack him. Chief Minister, Mr. Yeddiurappa, no less pugnacious in defence of the Hindutva Parivar and in his critique of the Church, would otherwise have shown himself to be condoning a well thought out and planned conspiracy against Christianity in Karnataka, which is one of the ancient homelands of our faith, together with the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

I am also surprised that former Deputy prime minister and BJP supremo Mr. Lal Krishna Advani in his meeting with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New Delhi, has chosen the occasion to plead that the US reconsider its ban on a visa to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The US has refused him a visa twice after human rights groups across the globe exposed his complicity in the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. In fact human rights groups have demanded that the US visa of Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik also be similarly revoked for his complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Kandhamal in violence that has continued now for forty days after it began its second phase on 24th August 2008.

In Karnataka, the simultaneous attacks left at least one pastor grievously hurt and scores injured. Pastor Christu Das of Kayarthada in Belthangandy D-K, escaped being decapitated as he warded off a sword attack with his arm, which now is in thick plaster. His wife, who ran to save him, was also attacked. All that the State did was to give him Rupees One thousand five hundred from the taluk office. He lives a life of terror in his incomplete IPCI church, and has been told not to hold worship services. Visitors going anywhere near him are stopped by goons, some on motorcycles, at the heeds of the road and questioned. The police are nowhere to seen.

At other churches, belonging to Believers Church India, Indian Pentecostal and other Evangelical groups, lone unarmed police or home guards sit, after having told the pastor not to carry on any religious work.

These rural areas are not visited by national teams and political leaders on disaster tourism of the region. Even the senior police and administrative officers have met the wounded only in hospitals and have not visited the devastated churches.

A most peculiar aspect of the entire episode from the time of the violence has been the role of the police. They had come to the churches before violence to warn the pastors to be cautious. They were missing from the spot then the actual violence took place. They appeared at the spot often within minutes of the violence as if they were waiting somewhere close by. At each church, they forced the pastor and his associates to clean up the damage remove broken glass and furniture before the press, sometimes accompanying them, was allowed to take pictures. In one case, attempts were made to wipe out all evidence of attempted arson. What were the police attempting to hide, and who where they attempting to protect. At each place, the assailants came with their faces masked with deadly weapons, and with fuel. When they did not find fuel, they emptied vehicles of pastors of fuel and set them afire.

Taking into consideration that the Rule of Law is inoperative on a widespread level and anarchy is prevalent in the affected Districts of Orissa, and Karnataka, our demands are:

1. To send in, para-drop if necessary, contingents of the Indian army into the Kandhamal district where the writ of the State no longer runs. This must be followed by a total change in the police and civil administration which has proved to be incompetent, partisan, bigoted and tainted at the highest levels. These officers must face criminal prosecution for c0mplicity in heinous crimes, and for dereliction of duty.

2. To sack the Home Ministers of Karnataka and Orissa, together with their senior police and civil officers for their complicity and sympathy with the assailant fascist forces.

4. To proscribe immediately all organisations and individuals carrying out or inciting communal violence, namely, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that have been identified by no less than the National Commission for Minorities as causing disaffection among the communities.

5. To order investigation by Central Bureau of Investigations, not by State commissions, into the circumstances leading to the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda Saraswati and the organised violence which followed in the wake of the Yatra in which his body was taken along hundreds of kilometers in the district of Kandhamal.

6. Order compensation without delay to the families of those killed in the anti Christian violence and the injured.


THE TOLL
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE
24 August – 4 October 2008

1. ORISSA
14 Districts hit
300 Villages destroyed
4,400 Houses burnt
50,000 Homeless
59 People murdered
10 Fathers/Pastors/Nuns injured
2 Women gang-rapes confirmed [One Nun]
18,000 Men, women, children injured
151 Churches destroyed
13 Schools, colleges destroyed

2. KARNATAKA
4 Districts affected
22 Churches attacked
20 Nuns, women injured

3. KERALA
3 Churches damaged

4. MADHYA PRADESH

4 Churches damaged

5. DELHI
1 Church destroyed
4 Attempts made

6. TAMAIL NADU 1 Church attacked

7. UTTARAKHAND 2 murdered – aged priest and employee



[Released to the media by Dr John Dayal]

Orissa group discovers enormity of anti Christian violence in Kandhamal district

Press Release

19/09/2008
Red Cross Society, Bhubaneswar

Observations and Recommendations about continued violence in Kandhamal, Orissa

Civil Society Organisations’ Fact Finding Team

The Civil Society Organisations under ‘Odisha Sadbhavana Manch’ formed a Fact Finding Team which visited Kandhamal district from 12 to 14 September, 2008. The team met with the district administration, personnel’s of police stations, a number of affected villages and relief camps. The team interacted with the victims as well as the in- charges of the relief camps. Seeing the nature and extent of violence, loss of human lives and property, the team proposes certain measures and recommendations for peace building process and constitutional governance in the violence affected areas.

Name of the Fact Finding Members

1-Mr kedar Roy
2-Mr. Mahendra Parida
3-Mr. Radha Mohan Das
4-Mr. N.K Rout

Observations
Through interviews, and spot verification of the riot affected areas – Baliguda, G.Udaygiri, Raikia, Tikabali, Phulbani and Kenwagaon, suggests that the violence was not spontaneous nor sporadic as government says, rather it was well planned and executed accordingly.

Police and Administration: When the violence started there was no police presence in the area and no adequate number of forces was deployed to contain the violence, even after knowing the nature of trouble that was going to take place. The police and administration was clueless as to what to do. Even where a few police men were deployed, they were a silent spectators and allowed the hooligans of VHP and Bajrang Dal to ransack and burn the houses of the Christian Community in front of their eyes. It wasn’t a problem of law and order situation as claimed by the government but it was in connivance of the government and the Sangh Parivar the violence was carried out for more than two weeks.

The Role of the Trader Community: The Dalit community’s progresses in their parallel business with the traders who are of outside the area have angered the traders’ community. Thus the trader community played an active role in spreading the communal violence along with outsiders who did not know Oriya. They were instrumental in threatening the victims, looting cattle and household articles, burning houses and in the re-conversion process. Outsiders were also involved in harassing the Fact Finding Team.


Health and Sanitation: Health and sanitation in most camps remains deplorable barring the camp in Raikia Mission School. Several people had fallen sick, and no proper medication was given to them. Two people in Udayagiri camp died of malaria and diarrhea.

Food: The quantity and quality of rice and Dal provided in the relief camps was inadequate and poor. In most camps the victims had to prepare their own food for which no utensils were given due to which food was not provided on time. Whether children of 2 years or people in their old-age, all had to eat only twice a day and that too lunch at 3.00 pm.


Relief Camps: The relief camps were set up in water-logging areas and this put the people into inconvenience. The tents provided for the victims were not sufficient. The camps are over crowded. There was no safety even to the relief camps. One person who went out of G.Udayagiri camp never returned, later his body was found wrapped in a canny bag and thrown in the pond. Women, children and the sick people are most vulnerable.


Fear Factor: The relief campers refuse to return to their homes fearing for their life. It is also found that most people had no homes to return to as they are burnt to ashes. Even those who want to go back to their village the miscreants are roaming around and threaten the people either to convert to Hinduism or leave their place.















Some facts and figures related to Kandhamal violence:

NAME OF BLOCKS NO. OF VILLAGES NO. OF HOUSEHOLDS AFFECTED
UDYAGIRI 36 640
RAIKIA 55 1391
TIKABALI 25 558
DARINGBADI 3 39
PHIRINGIA 25 428
CHOKAPADA 10 90
PHOLBANI 4 129
BALLIGUDA 18 555
TUMUDIBANDH NOT AVAIILABLE
KOTHAGARH NOT AVAILABLE
K NUAGAM 18 274
TOTAL 194 4104

NO OF PLACES OF WORSHIP DAMAGED 50
NO OF SHOPS DESTROYED IN RAIKIA 10
CONVENTS DESTROYED 4
NO OF BOYS/ GIRLS HOSTEL DESTROYED 5
OTHER INSTITUTIONS DAMAGED 6
NO OF PRIESTS ATTACKED 6
NO OF DECEASED PEOPLE IN UDYAGIRI 26



Recommendations:
The culprits of riots must to be immediately arrested.

Relief camps should continue at least till proper compensation and rehabilitation of the affected people is done.

In all the relief camps there should security arrangements, food and sanitation and heath care has to be improved.

The central government should impose president rule in Orissa.

A special register should be maintained at relief camps.

Police should accept FIR in all police stations in their respective riot affected areas.

Immediate survey of damaged houses should be done by government of Orissa.

Conversion or Re-conversion must be stopped immediately.

Those who are initiating riots should be arrested under 120 (b).

Government should immediately implement land reform in Kandhamal.