Date:01/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/01/stories/2008010159911200.htm

National

No adequate protection yet, says Archbishop

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: “There have been continuous onslaughts on Christians by fundamentalists in Orissa since Christmas and yet adequate protection has not been provided to the minority community, which continues to live in fear and anxiety,” the Archbishop of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, Raphael Cheenath, said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference organised here by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, he listed the incidents of attacks in Phulbani.

Between December 22 and 27, he claimed, five large parish churches, 50 village churches, six convents, three presbyteries, six hostels, two minor seminaries, one vocational training centre and one leprosy centre run by Christians had been “attacked and destroyed.”

Five people were killed and 400 houses gutted, the Archbishop said, adding the number of village churches vandalised could be higher as church leaders were unable to access several areas which had been blocked.

Fearing a further deterioration in the situation if the government failed to intervene decisively, the CBCI demanded an immediate enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation, adequate deployment of Central paramilitary forces in the affected areas, and proper compensation to the injured and survivors of those killed in the violence.