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Human
rights investigators have urged India's government to
tackle extremist groups and to improve protection of the
country's Christian minority after "the most severe
anti-Christian violence seen in post-independence India"
which killed scores of people and displaced thousands,
mainly in the states of Orissa and Karnataka. In its
annual briefing on the situation of Christians in India,
Britain based advocacy group Christian Solidarity
Worldwide (CSW) said 2008 "saw a continued pattern of
religiously motivated violence perpetrated against the
Christian community across numerous states.”
The briefing outlines the systematic outbreaks of
violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka, and
catalogues religiously-motivated attacks in other
states. It urges the government of India to implement
the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on
freedom of religion or belief in the report of her 2008
mission to India, and highlights the need to tackle
impunity in religiously-motivated violence and to
investigate extremist groups involved in the propagation
of violence.
It also calls on the Indian government to restore the
eligibility of Dalit Christians and Muslims to be listed
as ‘Scheduled Castes’, which would allow violence
against them to be litigated under a law designed to
tackle particular forms of violence against Dalits, and
for the repeal of state-level ‘anti-conversion’ laws.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive, Mervyn
Thomas said: “Rightly, there have been weighty
international expressions of concern about
anti-Christian violence in India, particularly in Orissa
state, including in the FCO’s Human Rights Report 2008
released today. We urge a continued international focus
on this issue until the perpetrators and inciters of
violence are brought to justice and the victims
rehabilitated. However, anti Christian violence in India
should be seen in light of the wider concerns about
anti-conversion laws, religious discrimination against
Dalit Christians and Muslims, and the powerful
anti-minority discourse of the Hindu nationalist
movement. We strongly encourage the Indian government to
tackle these concerns with a firm resolve, particularly
by implementing the recommendations of the UN Special
Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief”.
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