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This violence must
cease forthwith
We
stand before you as Indian citizens professing the Christian faith.
We bring you greetings from a community traumatized and struggling
for its existence in the state of Orissa, and buffeted by senseless
and motivated violence in eight other states For us, the threat has
never been solely against the Christian community, its major victims
though we are in recent months.
We
know to our pain that for all practical purposes, Kandhamal district
in Orissa seems not to be a part of
India, as police and paramilitary could not enter it for weeks. The
Indian Constitution remained operative. The Prime Minister has
correctly called the horrific events in Orissa a National Shame.
They are a slur on our ancient civilisation, our collective
heritage. They are also
cognizable crimes. (T)he embers still smoke in the ruins of more
than 4,300 houses and 157 Churches burnt in the Kandhamal and 13
other districts of Orissa. In a meticulously planned and executed
conspiracy, a frenzied and well armed band of political criminals
has threatened our community as perhaps it has never been in its
2,000 year old history in
India, one of the earliest homelands of the faith.
We
face a trial by gun, sword, fire and rapine, tantamount to ethnic
cleansing. Over 50,000 who were forcibly purged from 300 villages
now hide in forests as Internally Displaced persons, or cower in
Government refugee camps in sub human conditions. They have been
given a simple option - Convert to Hinduism or die.
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Excerpts from the statement released by Archbishop Vincent
Concessao of Delhi, Dr John Dayal of All India Christian
Council, Dr. Valson Thampu, Principal, St Stephen’s College,
Delhi, and others representing Christians, on the occasion of
the National Intergration Council Meeting on Monday at New Delhi |
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The elements threatening them now, and who murdered 59 of them in 45
days, have been identified as - and have often come before
Television camera to in macabre boast - members of the Bajrang Dal
and its sister organisations. They say it is their revenge for the
killing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice president Lakhmanananda
Saraswati on
23
August 2008.
The Church condemned the murder unequivocally and called for a high
powered enquiry. The guilty must be traced, arrested, tried and
punished - whatever is their religion, or ideology. The Maoists have
given TV interviews accepting responsibility for the assassination.
The State police have said it is the work of the Maoists. And yet a
Nun has been gang-raped, many men and women burnt alive or hacked to
death. A strange retribution against an innocent people.
We
fear it is a conspiracy to polarise communities along religious
divides in areas which had been peaceful through the decades. The
Sangh Parivar claims the violence is against forcible and fraudulent
conversions to Christianity. This violence must cease forthwith.
15 October 2008
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