"After almost 15 days of attacks against Christians by fanatic Hindus, Christians are still ling in jungles," church sources told BosNewsLife. Church representativs 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.
The violence began Monday, December 24, when Hindu mobs interrupted Christmas celebrations and vandalized Christmas decorations in several areas of Kandhamal district. The violence soon spread, with reports of several deaths and hundreds injured.
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.
PRIEST IN JUNGLE
At least over one thousand Christians, including priests, nuns, women and children, fled to the jungles of India’s 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."
Adding to difficulties are reports that the local government put restrictions on church leaders and other officials to visit affected area, citing security concerns. However church officials and politicians said they will try to reach "the people at any cost" to provide relief and visit families.
EXPRESSING OUTRAGE
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.
The recent outbreak of violence in Orissa has been linked to Hindu nationalist groups opposing the spread of Christianity and what they call "forced conversions." Christians comprise less than three percent of the country’s mainly Hindu population of 1.1 billion people.
Missionaries and others "want to convert people to Christianity and convert the country into a Christian land," said Swami Laxmananand Saraswati, head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or ‘World Hindu Council’, one of India’s largest Hindu hard-line groups.” We are opposed to that and that is the source of all disputes and fights."
However the VHP has denied it was behind the violence, after church groups alleged the violence was "pre-planned."
