Officials bring curtain down on Kandhamal relief camps

After August, there will be no relief camps for riot-stricken Christians in Kandhamal. Officials there have decided to close down the last running relief camp in the tribal district.

According to Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy, the relief camp in Tiangia will be closed down by August-end. The camp houses over 500 people and all the inhabitants will be "safely returned to their villages," Tripathy said.

When violence erupted in the volatile district of Kandhamal, there were total 13 relief camps established by the government. All of them were jam-packed by Christians who were forced out of their homes by Hindu mobs avenging the murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati.

Over 50,000 Christians had then fled their homes after seething mobs went on a rampage, razing down homes, churches and Christian institutions.

The relief camp at Tikabali village was the last to be shut down by officials who were in a hurry to bring out a more 'normalized' Kandhamal.

Several Christian activists and NGO groups said the evacuation in Tikabali was forced after the visit of National Commission for Minorities vice-chairman M.P Pinto who remarked that "complete normalcy" was still to return in the riot-ravaged district.

Pinto after his two-day visit expressed deep concern for the victims in relief camps and said "complete normalcy will be restored only after the last person leaves the camp."

So far, the local administration has only managed to fully rebuild 1981 houses of the 4600 damaged. Chief Secretary Tripathy claims that a total of 4435 families have received the first installment for reconstruction of their houses.

Additionally, he claims 2868 people received second phase installment for the reconstruction of homes. The delay in repairing and reconstruction, he said was due to the unwillingness of people to return to their villages.

However, Christian groups maintain that victims are often terrorized and threatened from returning to their villages until they "convert to Hinduism". Their lack of security and growing threats by Hindu fundamentalists forced them to remain in relief camps despite its deteriorating conditions

Last week, the National United Christian Forum, a united body of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, National Council of Churches and Evangelical Fellowship of India, demanded that govt. take "measures to carry out an extensive research with the view to rehabilitating the victims of violence, make the recommendations public, and implement them without loss of time."

They also demanded "education to displaced children" and "compensation for those who have been affected by the violence, including covering the loss of crops, livestock and employment, and assess required levels of compensation on a case-by-case basis through certified independent evaluators."