ASIA/INDIA - "No more violence": anniversary of anti-Christian massacres in Orissa

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Cuttack (Agenzia Fides) - Prayers and events under the slogan "No more violence": is how the Christian community in India lives the seventh anniversary of the massacres against Christians in the district of Kandhamal, in Orissa state, which took place on August 25, 2008 and the days following. As Agenzia Fides learns, prayers and demonstrations are held not only in Orissa, where the day-highlight will be on August 31, but also in several other Indian states.
In Kerala the Youth Movement, which joins the National Solidarity Forum, has organized a three-day event (23-25 August) with the intention of showing solidarity towards the victims, to remember those dark days and invoke "no more violence".
"Our main goal is to create awareness on the violence which took place in Kandhamal and preserve justice, peace and harmony", explained Dhirendra Panda, coordinator of the Forum and activist for human rights, to Fides.
The Forum, a coalition of human rights organizations, activists, journalists, researchers, jurists, artists, writers, scientists and associations, has organized several solidarity activities to support the needs of the victims and survivors of Kandhamal.
Dhirendra Panda said to Fides: "We have verified that compensation to victims on behalf of the government has been minimal. We express deep shock on the administration of criminal justice. We consider such violence on a specific community as an eternal stain on Indian democracy, on its commitment to guarantee human rights to its citizens, especially minorities. While the culprits are to blame in the first place, each silent spectator of these events is in fact an accomplice to the brutal violence against tribal Christians". The "Day of Remembrance" serves to put pressure on political and judicial institutions.
The largest wave of violence on a specific community, after the Muslims of Gujarat in 2002 happened on August 25, 2008. More than 350 churches and Christian places of worship were razed to the ground, about 6,500 houses were destroyed, dozens of schools and institutes looted. Almost a hundred people died and more than 40 women were victims of rapes, harassment and humiliation. More than 56,000 Christians were displaced and several cases of forced conversions to Hinduism were reported. (SD-PA) (Agenzia Fides 25/08/2015)


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