| |
Indian Persecuted Christians gathered in Bangaluru
Bangaluru, SVM News, June 24, 2007: Christian victims of persecution and five widows of persons martyred for their Christian faith gathered in Bangalore on 21st and 22nd of June. A rally was also organized by the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) at MG Road, protesting the great increase in attacks against the Christian community in India.
The participants shared their grief and agony at the kind of treatment they faced at the hands of violent mobs, who indulged in raiding homes and places of worship and showed total disregard for law or any respect for human or constitutional rights.
Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, said that though Christians composed less than 3 % of the country’s population their contribution of services of literacy, education, health, in areas where no one would – with the Leprosy affected, in remote tribal pockets, and among the poorest of the Poor. But still they were targeted for the worst violence like killing, public humiliation, destruction of churches and prayer halls, and exiling from the village.
“What crimes have they committed to get this kind of treatment? And instead of getting justice, the police often charge the victims and put them in jail. Bail is denied to them by magistrates. They are jailed on false charges. Murders are not investigated for years! We demand that justice be done in each case. We have documented 329 cases in the past 15 months,” Sajan George told.
Dr. Ruth Manorama, well-known human rights activist and Right Livelihood Award winner, said that the situation of violence against Christians in India was very grave. If there were no improvement, Christians would be forced to internationalise the issue by raising it inUNHRC, Geneva or in the United Nations.
GCIC submitted a Memorandum to the President of India requesting an independent enquiry into the country-wide incidence of violence against Christians by sections of Indian society. They urged the President to repeal the 1950 Presidential Order which abrogated some of the Constitutional Rights of Christians of Dalit descent by withdrawing their rights to reservations in education and employment.
SALEM VOICE MINISTRIES NEWS SERVICE (SVM NEWS)
Center for Persecuted Christians in India and third world:
|
