Members of the Justice and International Mission Unit were recently in India meeting with Uniting Church partner church, the Church of North India (CNI). The CNI reported that there are at least 3,000 Christians living in tents in Orissa as it is not safe for them to return to what is left of their homes due to the presence of local Hindu nationalist extremists.

While the Indian Government has provided compensation to people who lost their homes in the August and September 2008 rampage by Hindu nationalist extremists, the amount has been inadequate. The Government has paid 40,000 rupees to families who lost their homes and all the furnishings, but a simple one room home with a kitchen costs at least 100,000 rupees to build. An estimated 5,000 houses were destroyed in the riots. Not all those who had their houses destroyed have received the compensation legally entitled to them. Members of the JIM Unit met with the CNI lawyer who is working to ensure that the cases related to the violence are being prosecuted. Over 800 complaints have been registered with the police, which has resulted in 84 cases in which charges have been laid. Of these 29 cases have been tried so far. Six extremists have been sentenced to life imprisonment while a further 20 have been convicted for sentences of between three and four years. Five people were sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Pastor Akbar Digal of Tatamaha Baptist Church. We had requested that you write to the Indian and Australian Governments with regards to Pastor Akbar Digal’s murder in December 2008. Those convicted of his murder had slit his throat in front of his wife Ludia Digal on 26 August 2008.

However, in a number of cases a lack of evidence has resulted in acquittals for the accused. So far at least 88 people have been acquitted. In some cases witnesses have been afraid to testify against the extremists out of fear for their own safety. The CNI lawyer himself has been subjected to harassment and intimidation by the extremists.

A number of cases are now having to be carried out where Christians in Orissa have had their land confiscated as the records of ownership were destroyed in the riots.

The CNI lawyer also reported that there were cases where Christians have been forced to convert to Hinduism.

In August Christians organised prayers in several parts of India to mark the first anniversary of the anti-Christian violence in Orissa that left 90 people dead and forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes.

The churches have called for the immediate implementation of a witness protection program to help victims testify in court.

On the more positive side, ecumenical organisations and NGOs have also started running community projects designed to foster amicable relationships between Hindus and Christians in the part of Orissa where the violence was most intense. Christian and Hindu children have once again begun playing with each other in some villages.