India closes refugee camp for expelled Christians Sharp criticism of insufficient protection for pogrom victims in India

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has sharply criticised the decision of the Indian authorities to close all refugee camps for expelled Christians in the federal state of Orissa. "The Indian authorities are playing a dangerous game with the lives of the victims of violence”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. "Instead of assuring the safety of the victims of pogroms the Indian authorities want at all costs to give the impression that Christian native people are no longer being threatened by radical Hindus in the federal state of Orissa.”

The state government of Orissa decided last weekend to close immediately the last refugee camps of Christian Adivasi native people. More than 800 expelled persons have been living until now in two camps in Katingia and Mandakia. They have fears for their safety if they return to their home villages, in which their houses were destroyed by radical Hindus. They had on many occasions visited the villages together with representatives of the authorities to see if they could safely return there. Extreme Hindus threatened them on these visits to the villages. Extremist Hindus threatened them on these visits with death if they tried to rebuild their houses.

"There can be no question of a voluntary return on the part of the victims of violence to their home villages”, said Delius. The authorities stopped the supply of food and other aid to force the inmates of the camps to move out. "The ruthless behaviour of the Indian authorities is inhuman and unacceptable”, criticised Delius. Many of the people expelled are still traumatised and are very afraid of returning to their villages.

Approximately 50,000 villagers in the Kandhamal district of the east-Indian federal state of Orissa fled from their villages after 23rd August 2008 after extremist Hindus had set light to their houses and arbitrarily murdered ministers of religion. Well-organised Hindu gangs had after the murder of a radical Hindu leader attacked 315 villages of Adivasi native people. The federal police force, which was responsible, refused to give the Christians any protection. In the pogroms 2523 churches and 13 Christian schools were destroyed and 4,640 houses plundered and burned down.

Ulrich Delius is also available at u.delius@gfbv.de