Orissa, Christian survivors to the EU: “Give us back our lives”
ICC Note
Christians displaced due to attacks by radical Hindus told visiting EU delegation that they want to return back to their homes and reestablish their lives.
02/05/2010 India (AsiaNews)-The full respect of human dignity and human rights, a job and a home, a return to their villages and a restart to their children’s education. This is what survivors of anti-Christian violence that erupted in Orissa in August 2008 are asking for today. Their requests were made to the European Union delegation that is currently visiting the Indian state precisely to control the situation.
The delegation visited the camps where these IDPs are now living, who guided them to see the ruins left by the fundamentalists. A priest of the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Fr. Singh, says: “They should listen to our demands, which ultimately are only asking for the restoration of our former life.”
According to the Christian community, “the courts of justice established by the government with the purpose to shed light on what happened are actually a scam. The trials have gun, but the direct evidence and testimonies are not enough to send people to jail. Give us justice”.
