European Union cancels Orissa trip

A European Union delegation’s visit to Orissa has been scrapped at the
last minute after a dispute with the federal government over where the
team could go.

The delegation wanted to visit Orissa’s Kandhamal district, the
epicenter of anti-Christian violence in 2008, but the government
reportedly confined it to Bhubaneswar, the state capital.

The delegation canceled the four-day trip this evening (Jan. 27),
saying it was not worth visiting only the capital.

John Dayal, a member of the National Integration Council and secretary
general of the All India Christian Council, expressed “deep surprise”
at the government’s action.

The federal and Orissa state governments have repeatedly asserted that
there is “total peace” in Kandhamal and proper legal processes are
being carried out, Dayal says.

“If this indeed be so, what then is there to hide from the view of the
world?” he asked.

“The real culprits of the anti-Christian pogrom have got away,” Dayal
said.

The visit would have helped the team assess the progress of relief and
rehabilitation for the victims as well as the effectiveness of the
fast track courts set up to try cases against those accused of
violence against Christians.

The 10-member diplomatic team was to have been led by Ramon Moreno,
deputy chief of mission in the Spanish embassy in New Delhi.

The mission was only approved after more than a year of negotiations
with the federal government. The team was scheduled to meet Archbishop
Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, who heads the Catholic Church
in Orissa, on Jan. 28.

Dhirendra Panda, a human right activist in Orissa, criticized the
government’s actions.

“The very fact the government refuses the international community to
visit Kandhamal shows it has something to hide,” Panda, a secularist
Hindu, told UCA News.

Panda is demanding an explanation for the ban on visiting Kandhamal,
especially after it claimed it the situation had returned to normal.
The government stance will damage the country’s image around the
world, he says.

Father Dibyasingh Pariccha, a lawyer working among the riot victims,
says the government fears the diplomat’s visit would expose the fact
that people are still deprived of basic amenities.

Bipra Charan Nayak, convener of Sampradayika Hinsa Prapidita
Sanghathan (associations of survivors of Kandhamal communal violence),
says the government “did not dare to show to the world the injustice
meted out to a certain sections of its people.”

The European Union was vocal in its concern about the riots from the
moment they broke out on Aug. 24, 2008. French President Nicolas
Sarkozy confronted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an India-EU
summit in 2008.

Singh then said the violence against Christian minorities in Orissa
was “a national shame.”

Source: UCAN