Pogroms against Christian native people began one year ago (23.08.2008) – Victims of violence are still waiting for justice

For one year now the surviving victims of the pogrom-like riots against Christian native people in the East Indian federal state of Orissa have been waiting in vain for the just punishment of the criminals. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) reported on the anniversary of the outbreak of violence on 23rd August that radical Hindus threatened Christians with death to prevent them from giving evidence and to achieve the release of the suspects. „There is a climate of fear and many people who have been driven out are afraid of being once more victims of attacks. So witnesses must be certainly be given better protection”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Thursday in Göttingen. He warned against reducing the security forces protecting Christian institutions.

„We have been very concerned to note that the withdrawal of the last 400 men of the special response force of the Indian police CRPF from the crisis region of Kandhamal began already at the beginning of July”, said Delius. Some 5,000 men of this unit were sent to east India after the murder of the radical Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on 23rd August 2008. Well organised Hindu gangs had attacked 315 villages of the Adivasi native people. The federal police responsible refused to give protection to the Christians. 120 Adivasi were murdered, among them being pastors and nuns. 50,000 Christians had to flee, 252 churches and 13 Christian schools were destroyed and 4,640 houses were plundered and burnt down.

Only six criminals have been sentenced to prison for terms between two and six years, although 1,004 individual attacks were registered and 1,218 persons arrested, criticised the GfbV. At least 17 persons accused were acquitted for lack of proof. 821 complaints were lodged and 480 investigations instigated by the public prosecutor. However because witnesses were intimidated and threatened there were hardly any convictions. Three Hindu extremists (whose names are known to the authorities) tracked down witnesses in several villages and threatened them with death if they gave evidence in court. A prosecution witness in a case of rape of the Catholic nun Meena, in which investigations are being conducted against ten suspects, was threatened at this place of work.

The GfbV sent its India expert, James Albert, several times into the crisis region, since the information provided by the local authorities had proved unreliable from the outset. Albert described Christian refugees being intimidated by radical Hindus to convert to Hinduism. They were also called upon to withdraw their complaints to give the impression from the outside of harmonious co-existence. Some 1,300 refugees refuse to the present day to return to their villages because their safety there is not guaranteed. Adivasi who have returned report of continuing tension between Hindus and Christians.