INDIA More Homes, Church Buildings Destroyed In Renewed Orissa Violence

27-09-2008

Radical Hindu mobs armed with iron bars, machetes and swords roam villages in worst-affected Kandhamal district, where 109 houses and at least three churches were destroyed Sept. 24-25, Father Dibakar Parichha told UCA News.

The priest is spokesperson for Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese, which covers the district. It is based in the state capital of Bhubaneswar 1,745 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

Sister Suma, Bhubaneswar-based regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity nuns, told UCA News their convent in Kandhamal district's Sukananda village was "completely destroyed" on Sept. 25 night. The nun said some 700 armed people arrived in open trucks around 11 p.m. at the premises of the parish church in Sukananda and pulled down the church, priest's residence and convent, all within the same compound. Sukananda is about 220 kilometers west of Bhubaneswar.

"They could not harm any of our people" Sister Suma said, because she had already moved the nuns and some poor people they looked after "to safer places."

The superior said "Hindu friends and neighbors" who were guarding the church and convent could not prevent the violence. "I don't have information if the radicals attacked them also," she added.

Hindu militants performed "some puja (prayer ritual)" before they began destroying the church compound, making an offering of "some rice and other things," the nun reported.

"Remember, all this happened in an area supposed to be under night curfew," she pointed out. "There was no police force, no paramilitary, nothing. They came, did their prayer, did whatever they wanted and left."

Hindu fanatics began attacking Christians after Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed on Aug. 23 in Kandhamal district, where he was based. The 85-year-old Hindu leader had for several decades opposed conversions to Christianity. Even though a Maoist group claimed responsibility for killing the swami and four associates, radical groups blamed the murder on Christians and began to attack them across the state, killing at least 33 people thus far in a month-long pogrom. Church people estimate that about 50,000 people made homeless by the violence live in either relief camps or forests.

Sister Suma said she has reports that Hindu extremists have started a "combing operation" to search for Christians hiding in the forest. "How many they will kill and throw in the forest, we may never know," she said.

The violence had seemed to ease in recent days, and according to Father Parichha, "the renewed violence should be seen as retaliation" for police action against the extremists. He said tension resurfaced on Sept. 23 after one person was killed and two others injured when police opened fire on a mob that attacked a police station in Kandhamal. The mob was demanding the immediate release of two people arrested in connection with anti-Christian attacks.

Father Parichha said the situation is tense in most places, especially in Raikia, where most of the 14 government-run relief camps function. Frightened of being attacked, "people are not even getting out of their tents," he added.

Adding to that fear is lack of food in the camps, which the administration is unable to keep supplied with firewood for cooking because radicals have blocked roads by felling trees. "After each half-a-kilometer the roads are blocked. When one is removed, another is faced," the priest said.

"Children, women, old and the sick" are suffering the most in the camps. "It is a horrible situation of total desperation. The government cannot function. We cannot function. What to do?" he moaned.

Montfort Brother Thomas Thannickal, also based in Bhubaneswar, told UCA News that reports he has received confirm "the situation is horrible" in Kandhamal. He said hundreds of people seeking safety are reaching the state capital after trekking through forests. "People are chased out like crows. Even journalists were threatened," said the Religious, who is working to get aid to the terrified victims of violence in the district.

http://www.ucanews.com/2008/09/26/more-homes-church-buildings-destroyed-...