Indian Christian Refugees Still Hiding In Jungles After Deadly Violence
Indian Christian Refugees Still Hiding in Jungles After Deadly Violence
ICC Note:
Many Christians are still hiding in the jungles after the violence in the Orissa state, fearful that extremists will attack again.
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1/11/2008 India (BosNewsLife) Church representatives speaking on condition of anonymity said in several parts of Kandhamal district, where most violence occurred, people fear new attacks by Hindu extremists. They said at least six people were confirmed dead, while at least 600 houses and 75 churches were destroyed from Christmas eve December 24 till January 4.
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While a tense calm has returned, Christians here still “feel apprehensive of further attacks by Hindu extremists,” one witness said. With over 800 reported attacks in Orissa state, the number of attacks on Christians in 2007 crossed 1,000 for the first time in half a century, BosNewsLife monitored, based on estimates of advocacy group All India Christian Council, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and other organizations.
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At least over one thousand Christians, including priests, nuns, women and children, fled to the jungles of Indias Orissa State to escape the violence. Thousands more are hiding elsewhere, rights watchers say.
Those who return are in many cases without homes. “Many of the victims are huddled together in a school with hardly any basic amenities,” said Archbishop of Buhubaneshwar Raphael Cheenath. He complained that local authorities have “given to each family, just a sari and a two cotton blankets. [However] most of the victims lost everything and are indeed suffering so much.”
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The rights group Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has also expressed outrage about what it sees as the “apathy” of India’s National Commission for Minorities in addressing Christian problems in Khandhamal. The decision “to cancel its visit to the clash-sites because of the ‘hilly terrain’ speaks volumes of its disregard to the crying needs of the riot-hit Christians in Khandhamal,” said GCIC President Sajan K. George, who visited the troubled district Thursday, January 9.