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A fact-finding team that visited the camps and villages of Kandhamal district in Orissa, where the latest bout of violence against Christians has rendered thousands homeless and killed more than 25 people, finds the attacks by Hindu fundamentalists pre-planned and the government’s response inadequate
The violent attacks on the minority Christian community in Orissa – the latest bout of which began on August 24, 2008 after controversial VHP leader, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and his four associates were killed by unknown people – prompted an independent committee of concerned citizens to visit the state and investigate the attacks from September 15-18, 2008.
The report of the committee was released at a press conference on September 25, 2008 in New Delhi.
The members of the committee were Prof Manoranjan Mohanty of University of Delhi, Prof Amit Bhaduri, Prof (Emeritus) Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy, JNU, Seema Mustafa, editor, Covert, Sagari Chhabra, filmmaker and writer, Bijulal MV, Delhi Solidarity Group and Indian Social Institute, Delhi, Dr Prasad, National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR – NDMJ), Vincent Manoharan, National Secretary, NCDHR, Delhi, Dr Prakash Louis, director, Bihar Social Institute, Patna, Prafula Samantrai, president, Lok Shakti Abhiyan, Orissa, and Bhubaneswar-based lawyer Rajesh Jena.
The team noted that in the worst-affected Kandhamal district alone, 27,000 people have become refugees and are living in camps, while 101 churches were attacked. Some 900 people were living in one such camp at a school in the G Udayagiri block.
Victims’ testimonies
The testimonies given by those interviewed in the camps shows a common pattern. The attackers shouted slogans of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as they burnt the houses of only Christians and attacked the residents, forcing them to flee into the forests.
According to the testimony of a woman from Raikula taking refuge in the Hathishala camp, the attackers were from the Bajrang Dal and the RSS. “They said 'stop being a Christian and become a Hindu'. They even burnt our church. Last December, in 2007, they came with guns, katras, small axes, big axes and swords. This time on August 27, 2008 they came again and burnt everything. If we attempt to go back home they threaten to kill us."
The victims narrated incidents of the mobs killing relatives, hunting down priests and one man who ran an orphanage said that it, too, was attacked and the children were now living in a refugee camp.
The team heard the testimony of a man belonging to village Bakingiya, who described how the attackers destroyed the church and forced the pastor Samuel Diggal to throw down the Bible. When he refused, they cut him down with an axe and burnt him with petrol. They did the same to his mother, Janamah Diggal.
A Hindu, Dasrath Pradhan, was killed because he preached amity between Hindus and Christians. The team met his sister who said her brother was called for a meeting and when he went, he was attacked and hacked to death.
The committee concluded from several such testimonies and from what they saw in the villages they visited, that the attacks on the Christians was a pre-planned communal attack as only Christian houses were singled out and burnt. “The people also told us the names of the local people involved, but they were led by a mob that came from outside and included the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.”
Security in the camps too was poor. Three bombs were thrown into the Udayagiri camp. A man who had been part of the mob that had driven away many of the inmates of the Hubbacka camp from their homes, tried to sneak into the camp and was caught by the police only to be let off later when he went to another police station and registered a complaint against those who had helped to nab him. Only three Central Reserve Police Force men were found guarding this camp.
Members of the team were themselves threatened -- and on one occasion detained -- in several of the villages they visited. No one was willing to give any information and those who spoke were openly aggressive towards the Christians.
Roads were often blockaded to prevent police movement. One police official said that it took them six hours to travel 80 km. “All these indicate the pre-planned nature of the violence and the ability of the perpetrators of violence to 'effectively' take over the law and order situation in their control,” the committee noted.
Ineffective policing
The committee is also critical of the role of the police. Mostly the police was a silent spectator, it said, and dismissed the state government’s excuse that it did not have sufficient forces to control the rioting.
Though according to official data 2,863 houses were burnt down, only 230 criminal cases were registered and 35 cases of injury were recorded. District officials told the committee that arrests could not be made in many situations “because if arrests are made the situation would have further deteriorated”. The committee notes that “Such statements are self-explanatory and prove that the police was not undertaking the primary responsibility to stop violence by booking the culprits.”
The district administration claimed that the situation had improved, pointing to the fact that the number of people in the camps had reduced from 27,000 to 17,000. However the committee noted that people who left the insecure camps were not returning to their homes. “It appears that they are leaving the inhospitable conditions in the camps for undisclosed destinations and could well become the homeless of India,” the committee noted.
Recommendations
The team made several recommendations for the central and state governments.
It was not enough for the central government to issue a warning under Article 355; the centre should issue precise directions under Articles 256 and 257 directing the Orissa state government to take necessary action to curb violence expeditiously.
It also recommended that the central government declare the entire Kandhamal district an area of communal disturbance and issue directions to the state government under Article 355 to curb the internal disturbance.
A CBI inquiry should be ordered to enquire and investigate the killing of Swami Lakhmananda Saraswati and the violence perpetrated after that.
The state government has to do more to normalise the situation in Kandhamal district.
Preventive arrests as well as FIRs must be lodged, perpetrators apprehended and speedy trials initiated. Government officials should be booked for dereliction of duty and wilful negligence in protecting the victims and stopping the violence. Hindutva fundamentalist forces must not be allowed to operate with impunity but should be proceeded against legally. The committee recommended that the government should ban the entry of the VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS into Kandhamal district.
It also recommended that the condition of the refugee camps should be greatly improved and the victims be compensated for the damage to lives and property, taking the help of civil society organisations to assess the losses. In fact, the state government should allow the free entry of civil society and human rights organisations into Kandhamal district.
Noting the history of social and communal tensions in Orissa, the committee recommended that a long-term strategy should be worked out to render justice to the victims and to promote peace and secularism in Orissa.
InfoChange News & Features, October 2008
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