Update on Persecution in India

ORISSA 2008 FACT SHEET FROM CATHOLICS IN INDIA
STATE GOVERNMENT ACQUIESCES IN VHP PLAN TO WIPE OUT
CHRISTIANITY FROM ORISSA

(With comments added by John Dayal of the Evangelical Fellowship of India.)

FOURTH WEEK OF VIOLENCE Sunday 14th September

[JOHN DAYAL'S NOTE: Late night I had two very disturbing calls
interrupting the unceasing messages and rings from Orissa on my two
mobile phones. The first was of two serrate gun battles between police
and armed mobs. One was a Sangh Parivar posse attacking the Church in
Tumuliband and apparently two of the attackers were killed by the
police. The second was apparently a Maoist attack on two villages in
the Raikia region, and a gun battle was reported still raging.

The second message confirmed something I had been told some days ago -
that Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and surgeon Dr. Praveen Togadia {he
is still registered, apparently, with the Medical Council] had given a
call, almost a contract, to his cadres in Orissa that three prominent
Christian leaders, two of them living in Bhubaneswar, had to be
`eliminated'. Already, these three have been named in the Oriya
language Press, and pamphlets with their names have been distributed
in villages in Kandhamal and neighbouring district.

These alarming news came hot on the heels of perhaps even more
disturbing reports from the highest quarters in Bhubaneswar and
Cuttack [which is home to the state Police headquarters] and confirmed
from New Delhi that the State Government which Chief Minister Naveen
Pattnaik runs in collation with the Bharatiya Janata Party has agreed
with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh thesis that the State can move
forward only once it is rid of all Christians, specially from
Kandhamal and Sundergarh. These are the two districts in the State
with a sizable number of Tribals and Dalits. Orissa has just about 2 percent Christians in its population, less than the national
average of 2.4 per cent. It is also India's third largest Hindu
majority state. Coincidently, Kandhamal and Sundergarh are the only
two states where the Christian population is more than the State
average.

Last night, the police opened fire in Tumuliband, the small town close
to the Ashram of the late Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president
Lakhmanananda Saraswati. Apparently, the assailants were bent upon
burning the Church and other buildings, so it can be presumed they
were not Christians. The second police encounter was with alleged
Maoists who attacked two villages in the Raikia-Udaygiri region. I am
awaiting details and confirmation.

Needless to say, every single Bishop, Priest, pastor and common man or
woman who has communicated with me - I am in Delhi, told by my friends
not to come to Kandhamal at this time - has said the people are in a
state of abject panic. Every eyewitness account adds to their panic.
Prayer is their only strength.

In Delhi we still have no information if any Church organisation has
been able to go, or allowed to go, to render assistance to the people,
some of whom are positively starving and on the verge of collapse. In
December 2007, it was the District Collector who had stopped Christian
aid till the Supreme Court overruled him months later. This time, it
is the sweep and brutality of the violence.

This is confirmed by what others in authority say.

"What we are witnessing in states like Orissa most recently is a
carefully orchestrated ploy by the BJP and its sister organisations to
inflame religious prejudices and passions," Congress president Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi told her Party's highest policy making body yesterday.
"This has been their (Sangh Parivar's) strategy all along. Every time
their position is weakened, every time elections are around the
corner, the BJP, RSS, Baring Dale and the VHP launch into the most
vicious communal campaign to divide and polarise society, with no
regard to loss of lives and livestock," Mrs. Gandhi said

The Supreme Court has asked for a report on the steps taken by the
government to protect the lives of the minority Christians. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh has announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia to each
family of those killed. It has also sent 500 Central police personnel,
grossly insufficient according to the victims cowering in their
villages or still to return.

After we met in a delegation with President Mrs. Pratibha Patil and
demanding that Article 355 be invoked and the State government told to
act, Union Home minister Shivraj Patil did caution the state
government that unless it takes adequate measures to book and punish
the persons involved in "such incidents", there is possibility of
report of "unfortunate" happenings in future.

The government admits violence has now gripped 13 of Orissa's 30
districts after Lakhmanananda Saraswati and five of his associates
were killed on August 23 by Maoists.]

A VIOLENCE SNAPSHOT
STATES AFFECTED: Three --- Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh
IN ORISSA, DISTRICTS AFFEFTED: 14
NUMBER OF VILLAGES AFFECTED: 300
NUMBER OF HJOUSES DESTROYED: Over 4,000
PEOPLE AFFECFTED: Over 50,000
HIDNING IN FORESTS About 40,000
IN GOVERNMETN REFUGEE CAMPS: About 12,000
IN PRIVATE CAMPS AND HOMES: about 1,000
NUMBER OF PERSONS KILLED IN POLICE FIRING: [presumed Non Christian]
2
NUMBER OF DEAD MISSING / ABDUCTED: [Christians or staff] estimated:
5

NUMBER OF DEAD CONFIRMED: 45
NUMBER OF PRIESTS / PASTORS / NUNS SERIOUSLY INJURED: 10
NUMBER OF INJURED MEN AND WOMEN: Estimated [18,000, most still in
forests]
NUMBER OF CHUCHES ATTACKED: 56 and counting
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ATTACKED: 11
NUMBER OF NGOs ATTACKED: 4

Detailed fact-sheet available on request from catholicunion@gmail.com.