Monday, September 08, 2008

Violence in India Is Fueled by Religious and Economic Divide

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/asia/04christians.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[The New York Times] 8 Sep 2008--Those who came to attack Christians here early last week set their trap well, residents say.

First, they built makeshift barricades of trees and small boulders along the roads leading into this village, apparently to stop the police from intervening.

Then, villagers say, the attackers went on a rampage. Chanting “Kill these pigs” and “All Hindus are brothers,” the mob began breaking into homes that displayed posters of Jesus, stealing valuables and eventually burning the buildings. When they found residents who had not fled to the nearby jungle, they beat them with sticks or maimed them with axes and left them to die.

A local official said three people died as a result of the attack on Aug. 25. The carefully placed roadblocks accomplished their purpose; residents say a full day passed before help arrived.

One villager, Asha Lata Nayak, said, “I saw the mob carrying sticks, axes, swords, knives and small guns. They first demolished the village church and later Christian houses. Nobody came forward to help us.”

The scene in Tiangia was repeated in villages throughout the Kandhamal district and several other areas of Orissa, a remote and destitute state in eastern India, witnesses and the police said. The violence, which left at least 16 dead, was among the worst in decades against Christians in this Hindu-dominated nation and appears to have been fueled, at least in part, by discontent at a time when the gap between India’s haves and have-nots is growing.

Related video:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/09/08/video-of-violence-in-orissa/
Video of Violence in Orissa - Anglican Mainstream

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