ASIA/INDIA – Violence in Orissa 13 years ago: Christians in Orissa call for justice again on the occasion of the commemoration – Agenzia Fides

Bhubaneswar (Agenzia Fides) – Many Indian lay people, priests, nuns, academics, Christian leaders, lawyers and believers of other religions celebrated the 13th “Day of Remembrance” on August 25, dedicated to the victims of the massacres of Christians in Orissa 13 years ago. The program includes prayer meetings, liturgical celebrations, webinars, which intend to remember the ferocious anti-Christian violence campaign that took place in 2008 in Kandhamal, in the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, in the Indian state of Orissa (Odisha), in eastern India. The National Solidarity Forum, an association ofmore than 70 civil society groups, organized a webinar entitled “In Defense of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms” which gathered thousands of participants across the country. “The state government of Orissa has completely failed to take action to prevent horrific crimes. It tried to portray the massacre as an tribal conflict, instead of recognizing the severity of the violence”, said A.P. Shah, former judge of the Delhi and Madras High Court who was one of the speakers at the webinar. “The government has set up two commissions, as is customary on such matters, but both have been ineffective,” he notes. “The commission has not yet submitted a report on the matter. Almost 13 years later, there is not even a collection of documents . Such commissions, especially those set up after inter-community violence, tend to be bodies meant to temporarily appease public opinion, but usually do not produce anything useful”, he said. “The way the violence was handled in Kandhamal is a textbook example of the failure of India’s criminal justice system”, he said. At the event, Shah also presented the first Kandhamal Human Rights Award to the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, a Delhi-based NGO, and the individual award to Paul Pradhan, a lay Catholic from Kandhamal.

ASIA/INDIA – Violence in Orissa 13 years ago: Christians in Orissa call for justice again on the occasion of the commemoration – Agenzia Fides