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(SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION OF KANDHAMAL COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)
AT/PO- MUNDASAHI, BALLIGUDA, KANDHAMAL, PH-9438072385

Letter no-16/2010. Date: 13.01.2010

To
The Honorable Members of the Delegation of the European Union
Camp: Kandhamal-Bhubaneswar, Orissa

Memorandum

Honourable members of the European Union Delegation

Greetings from the Survivors Association of Kandhamal Communal
Violence.

Homeless and in agony, we still welcome you to our beautiful
Kandhamal, where we have lived generations upon generations since
history began for us. We hope your short visit to Kandhamal will help
you see for yourself not just the condition in which many of our
brothers and sisters live, the circumstances which wrecked brutal
violence on us, turning us into refugees in our homeland, forcing us
into this life of ignominy shorn of human rights and human dignity,
our sorrow and our pain invisible and unfelt to the outside world.

In this violence, 5347 houses were looted and destroyed by fire, many
women and girls were raped, and more than 75 people were murdered in
the name of religion and ethnicity. Large-scale displacement and
migrations followed with over 50,000 people becoming refugees in their
own motherland. The culprits of this inhuman activity are roaming
freely, neither arrested nor punished.

We hope your visit and the work of civil society, will persuade the
authorities to restore us to our lands, to our homes and to our normal
lives, and will ensure that the justice dispensation system ensures a
peace built on justice, and not on fear. We also hope that without
loss of time, we would be able to once again enjoy freedom of faith
and all those other things that make for a life of dignity.

We refer to three major issues:

1. Justice as critical to long term peace

2. Rehabilitation in our own villages without the threat of forcible
conversion

3. Employment and economic rehabilitation, and for our youth,
resumption of education.

Soon after the unprecedented Kandhamal communal violence, the
Government of Orissa set two Fast Track Courts to expedite the many
criminal cases arising from the communal violence directed against the
Christian community. The Courts, and the Court premises, have however
become a travesty of justice.
The sense of insecurity among witnesses is adding to the gross
miscarriage of justice in the two Fast Track courts. Victims and
witnesses are being coerced, threatened, cajoled and sought to be
bribed by murderers and arsonists facing trial. Shoddy police
investigations have already created a crisis in the dispensation of
justice, and even genuine eye witnesses are reneging in court as they
see the court premises full of top activists of fundamentalist
organizations and often the same persons who had burnt their houses.
The police mute watchers, as always. The witnesses are threatened in
their homes, and even their distant relatives are being coerced.

In the current volatile political situation, we fear with reason that
religious political leaders and former ministers are influencing the
district administration and judiciary system along with communal
elements in Kandhamal.
Even the media has reported at the strange situation in the two Fast
Track court of Ad hoc Additional Session Judges which are trying all
the murder and arson cases against Legislative Assembly Member Manoj
Pradhan. Though witnesses have deposed strongly on his involvement in
the crimes, he has been let off in case after case. The witnesses are
in panic and do not dare to speak in the court. Many witnesses have
even refused to come to court as they do not dare to travel anymore.
We also have strong doubts in the quality of the police investigations
which are making it easy for the guilty to go scot free.
As in the case of Gujarat after the intervention of the Supreme Court
of India, there is urgent need for a Special Investigation team to
investigate every case of murder and arson. Similarly, there is also
need for transferring the cases against politically powerful persons
such as Manoj Pradhan, legislator, to outside Kandhamal, preferably to
Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. We have repeatedly demanded change in the Fast
Track Court Judges and Public Prosecutors, and an effective programme
to reassure and support witnesses who fear for their lives.

It is a matter of serious concern that it is more than one year passed
the affected households is yet to be enlisted in the government list
for compensation depriving them all the support and rehabilitation.
The hapless and helpless victims abandoned to look for themselves.
There is gross malpractice due to corrupt and indifference attitude of
the local officials, who have not list the fully damaged houses as
fully, but partially thus effectively depriving the compensation and
supports. We demand immediate assessment and support.

The compensation package declared by the State Government is very
meager, which is not sufficient for the house construction.
Conversely, these packages are much less than the compensation
packages provided to the Sikh and Gujarat communal violence victims of
1984 and 2002 respectively. We demand a special package for the
violence affected people and ensure its proper implementation. This
package should include land, income generation, education and health
care, etc., so that the poor innocent people who have lost everything
can be rehabilitated properly.

We feel that the district administration and police instead of
unearthing the facts behind Kandhamal carnage are resorting irrational
conclusions and judgments with regard to the religious conversions of
Christian community. In their depositions before the Mahapatra
Commission, they have tried this or that way to find fault with the
victims instead of reviewing their role and responsibilities. When
creates the communal tension and this kind of irresponsible blaming
may cause future conflict. Hence we demand appropriate action against
these officers.

It has been propagated that Scheduled caste people are guilty of land
grabbing by Scheduled Tribes in the district of Kandhamal which has
created the ethnic conflict. But this is apportioning blame without
any proof or basis. We demand proper settlement of land in the
district. Particularly, please ensure to allot lands to landless. The
Government should publish a “white paper” on the land issue.

We would also like to draw your attention to how the print and
electronics media played a devastating role during Kandhamal incident.
Particularly Oriya print media played an anti-minority role and
portrayed victims as villain. Media failed in its duty as the true
watchdog of society and went on circulating misinformation, inciting
stories against minorities and biased view points. The genuine
concerns of well-meaning citizens and sufferings poor adivasis and
dalits have been ignored.
Your visit and the international and national focus on Kandhamal will
go a long way in correcting such aberrations. This is our hope and our
prayer.

Thank you

Yours faithfully
Convenor
SHPS, Kandhamal, Orissa.