ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE ESCALATES IN INDIA

New Delhi, Dec. 27, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Violence against Christians continues in India's eastern Orissa state, despite the curfew imposed by local authorities in an effort to curb the activities of Hindu mobs.

The violence that began on Christmas Eve continued through December 27, with arson attacks that destroyed the homes of 300 Christian families and caused at least 3 deaths. During the night of December 26-27, a group of Hindu zealots, defying a curfew order, attacked a home of the Missionaries of Charity in Kandhamal, the AsiaNews service reports.

The anti-Christian campaign was triggered by the Hindu-nationalist group known as Visva Hindu Parisad, or VHP. Denouncing the Christian missionaries who draw converts from Hinduism, and pledging to lead these converts back to their original faith, VHP called a "strike" against Christians beginning on December 24. The campaign quickly erupted in violence as young Hindu militants tore down Christmas decorations on display at homes and stores, and escalated as the mobs attacked churches and schools.

In New Delhi, a group of India's leaders planned a rally on December 27 to protest the violence in Orissa. Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh was expected to join in the rally along with New Delhi's Archbishop Vincent Concessao.

[For a more detailed report see the AsiaNews web site.]

Priest Refuses UN Foundation's "Dirty Money"

Father Thomas Kocherry, a Redemptorist priest and well known human rights activist, has refused a prize from the United Nations Foundation that had offered to fund his projects in support of Indian fishermen. He explains to AsiaNews: "that money comes from the multinationals who dominate the UN and who have no interest in the world’s problems, it would never bear fruit."

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – The UN “is controlled by the multinational companies and they are buying off people with ideas different (from) their own to block all forms of social justice, instead of thinking of the common good. This is why I refused the donation they wanted to award me to continue my work: its dirty money”. The priest renounced a prize fund of 646 thousand Euros, to be divided amongst other winners.

This is how Fr. Thomas Kocherry – Redemptorist priest and well known human rights activist – explained to AsiaNews why he refused a prize from the United Nations Foundation who wanted to fund his projects in favour of Indian fishermen. The foundation born in 1988 thanks to the record donation of a billion dollars from the American magnate Ted Turner chooses the worthiest projects and funds them, on the advice of a United Nations panel of directors.

The priest however underlines that “that money cannot be accepted because (it comes) from a group of people who do not have the real problems of the world at heart. Financial groups are now in command : they are very good at buying people over with prizes and funding, like those they wanted to award me, but in the meantime they have distanced from the highest directional levels all of those who really did something for the less fortunate of the world, to use the UN as they wish”.

According to Fr. Kocherry, “the time has come to reveal what is the true diabolical nature of the United Nations and all of its collaborators. I will go on doing what I have always done, maybe with the few resources that I have at my disposal but with a clean conscience, without falling into the trap of greed for money. We are in search of the Divine Kingdom and its justice, but we know that it’s a long and difficult process which foresees the cross”.

Obviously, adds the priest “money in itself is useful, above all in humanitarian causes. But if we are dealing with dirty money, you may be certain that it will not bear fruit. Jesus told us to seek, first and foremost, the Kingdom of justice: there are no short cuts in this journey”.

Helen Garland, president of the Earth Foundation and a collaborator of Fr. Kocherry, worked for many years at the United Nations. She told AsiaNews: “The Foundation represents one of the biggest, most dangerous and confused international realities, with which we all have to grapple. Despite Turner’s claims, its damaging effects were seen right from the moment they distanced the old directors, those of the then Secretary General U Thant”.

Garland, who has closely followed the Foundation and the United Nations’ work adds: “How can we possibly believe in good faith when they choose the Waldorf Astoria to hold their meetings, costing over 500 euros a night? Fortunately Fr. Kocherry is aware of this situation and has been able to see with his worn eyes the disastrous effects of this board of directors, accepted by other Indian organizations. If he had (agreed) to become a part of all of that, ... he would have seen his project ruined from within, in a very short space of time”.