Aid to the Church in Need: Orissa – Human rights crisis

Orissa – Human rights crisis

Posted by Press release on 3/10/2008, 8:16 am
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ACN News: Friday, 3rd October 2008 – INDIA

Orissa – Human rights crisis

Bishop: “It is not that the [state government] are not able to do anything – they have no will to do so. This means the miscreants are getting bolder…”

By John Pontifex and John Newton

A BISHOP in India whose diocese has fallen victim to systematic violence against Christians has called on the international community to intervene – claiming local police are failing to act.
In a strongly-worded interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur, in Orissa state, hit out at state authorities in Orissa for failing to stop the bloodshed and the destruction of the Christian community.
Since the violence erupted just over a month ago, at least 30 people have died and more than 30,000 have fled their homes after Hindu extremists attacked Christians, stripping priests naked, raping religious Sisters and mutilating women and children.
In response to the growing violence, Bishop Nayak said: “It is not that the [state government] are not able to do anything – they have no will to do so. This means the miscreants are getting bolder, and are going from village to village.”
With atrocities now spreading across India, Bishop Nayak explained that the government had sent paramilitary forces to Orissa to quell the violence but accused the state police of failing to direct the troops to the worst affected areas.
In response to fresh attacks on Christian communities in which a Hindu woman died, the state police yesterday (Wednesday, 1st October) imposed a curfew in nine towns in the Kandhamal district, Orissa.
But there are concerns that the action taken is too little, too late.
Bishop Nayak hit out at the government’s alleged failure to act saying: “This is not a religious issue, it is a human rights issue – the right to religion and freedom of conscience is not there.”
The bishop accused the Indian government of flouting human rights despite signing up to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and called on the international community to pressurise the government into taking action.
He said: “The initiative needs to come from other governments, who should object to the violation of human rights.”
Christian settlements are still victim to systematic attacks, and the bishop told ACN of recent reports describing 40 homes being destroyed in an assault on yet another village.
He said Christians are constantly being forced to convert to Hinduism and if they refuse their houses are destroyed or they are killed.
“The violence continues to get worse”, he added.
Bishop Nayak fears that with the upcoming elections in India, the central government will not intervene further, as they are afraid of being seen as anti-Hindu.
He added that the events have been totally neglected in the local media, although they have been covered in the national press.
Other Church news agencies including AsiaNews have criticised media reports of the Orissa violence as being biased against local Christian communities, falsely portraying Hindu fundamentalists as defending tribal rights against aggressive missionary activity.
Meantime, more than 25,000 refugees who fled the violence are now living in camps in Kandalmal.
But Bishop Nayak said that even there it is not safe, and highlighted a report he received of food in one of the camps being poisoned.
The bishop said that some have left the camps, seeking shelter in villages in Bharaphal.
Reports say that neither the Church nor humanitarian organisations are being allowed to enter the refugee camps or forests where Christians have fled for shelter.
However, the Church is helping the areas in Orissa hit by flooding and cholera, which has already led to seven deaths.
Bishop Nayak said: “The government is not ready to risk going to these places, but the Church is.”
He added that while the Church is accused of using foreign funds for conversion, Christians are funding considerable amounts of humanitarian work for Hindus.
The bishop said more needs to be done in India to correct false views about Christians, and show the humanitarian dimension of foreign aid.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, contact please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
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