SC Stays Govt Order Restraining NGOs From Bringing Relief To Orissa Victims

NEW DELHI, APR. 09, 2008, 10.20 Hrs:

The Supreme Court of India has issued notice to the Government of Orissa and the District Collector of Kandhamal in a Special Leave Petition filed by the Human Rights Law Network and CLA on behalf of Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack Bhubaneswar.

The Supreme Court effectively stays the operation of an order by the District Collector of Kandhamal through which he banned Church relief to victims of the Christmas Week Sangh Parivar violence on Dalit and Tribal Christians of the central Orissa district.

Over 100 churches, convents and seminaries were burnt, hundreds of houses destroyed and a homeless 3,500 Christians forced into refugee camps after three days of burning and looting by Sangh gangs from 24th to 17th December 2008.

Even now thousands of refugees are in the camps, devoid of decent good, clothes sand Medicare. The initial efforts of the church to bring relief to the refugees were thwarted when the Orissa High Court at Cuttack refused to stay the Collector's order. The All India Christians Council later filed a public interest writ petition and a Division bench headed by the Orissa Chief justice put a stay on the operation of the Collector's order. A small stream of assistance has now started to reach the Christian refugees who spent their Christmas in the forests, the Lenten season in refugee camps and Easter celebrations with bad government rations for food and illness in the camps.

.Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who also heads the Human Rights Law Network, appeared in the matter. CLA lawyer members Mr. Manoj George, Ms. Lansinglu Rongmei, Mr. Vipin Benjamin, Mr. Pramod Singh, Mr. Alex Joseph, Sr. Mary Scaria, Mr. Rajiv Rufus and Ms. Tehmina Arora were also present in court.

The All India Christian Council, the All India Catholic Union and other Christian groups had earlier met the State Governor, Chief Minister and the Prime Minister and Home Minister of India requesting them to allow aid to the victims of the violence.

Narrating the events, the HRLN writ said the terror was so extreme that hundreds of families even to this day are hiding in the jungles for fear of being attacked.

It said the approach of the State Administration as well as the Police appears to indicate that the communal organizations have the support of the State. Those participating in the brutal assaults are yet to be arrested and many of those arrested have been released on bail. In many cases the victims themselves have been arrested in counter cases to deter the victims from pursuing the prosecution of the assailants.

The government is strangely silent and utterly inactive on this issue. No rehabilitation or relief policy has been announced. In very few cases compensation has been paid upto a maximum of Rs. 10,000. The conditions in these camps were appalling. Out of 3 camps some form of relief were provided only in 2 camps. Then out of 3 camps, 2 were closed. The condition in the remaining camp is awful without proper food, drinking water of medicines. 2 persons died in the relief camp due to lack of medical attention on 15 January 2008.

As far as the provision of grain is concerned, a fraction of the persons affected were provided with grain as a one time measure and this grain supply has now been discontinued. In short the relief of the government appears to be at a standstill.

At the same time the communal elements are freely moving in the district, terrorizing the victims.

When the Church sought to reconstruct the churches and the houses that were destroyed, to their surprise they were prevented from doing so. Not only that the was prevented from providing relief supplies to the victims. In fact the Collector made an order dated 11 January 2008, which barred the archbishop from bringing relief's to his community.

HRLN's writ said the State is inactive. The police are siding with the assailants. The communal elements are roaming free. And the victims are in a most pathetic state. In the Hon'ble High Court, the State Government took the side of the communal elements and suggested to the court that if relief work was carried out for the victims ill feelings would be created. Nothing could be further from the truth. To say that some persons would be upset because victims of a communal riot were getting relief is quite irrational to say the least, HRLN said. And if communal elements are upset because relief is being provided to the victims it is the duty of the State Government to keep such communal elements under control rather than use them to prevent relief reaching the victim community.

Dr. John Dayal

National President, All India Catholic Union