By Vishal Arora

EMERGING facts indicate India’s largest spate of anti-Christian violence, which has rendered thousands homeless in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, was preplanned.

Three months before the series of attacks began on Christmas Eve in the mountainous district of Kandhamal, a newspaper report had warned that tensions were brewing between the Christian and non-Christian tribal communities over governmental affirmative action.

Anticipating attacks during Christmas week, local Christians had on December 22 urged district authorities to provide police protection. Their pleas went unheeded. Christian leaders said at least nine people were killed, more than 90 churches burned and an estimated 730 houses torched or vandalized.

“It is beyond doubt that the violence was premeditated, preplanned, and the work of a well-disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruptions across the district within hours of the first incident, and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region,” said John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council.

Continue article >>

“The great human tragedy and violence against Christians was waiting to happen,” Dayal told Compass. “It was part of a great conspiracy, and the guilty are identified and known. The tragedy will repeat again unless urgent steps are taken.”

Further, he said, “This was the first time that such a large number of Christian villagers were displaced and had to live in refugee camps after their houses were burnt.

“This is the first time in history since the [1947] Independence that an estimated 3,000 Christian men, women and children are forced to live in two refugee camps, eating boiled rice not fit for human consumption because of the quantity of sand and grit, and living in the cold without toilets, precious little medical care and no woolens.”

– Compass Direct

February 2008