Kandhamal refugees too scared to go home

LIVING OUT OF SUITCASES: The victims are inconvenienced but at least feel secure, unlike what they felt in their villages

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Bhubaneshwar: Even though there has been a let up in the violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, most of the 25,000 refugees are still too scared to return home.

“Now I am very scared to go back there because we feel once we go there we will be killed,” said Martha Diggal, a refugee at the camp in Bhubaneshwar.

Her son, three-year-old Gagan is too young to understand why he is in this refugee camp in Bhubaneshwar.

He does not know that his house has been burnt down and that his uncle and grandfather were killed.

Over the past few days the number of refugees in these camps has gone down from 24,000 to 10,000. But those leaving are not headed to what were previously their homes.

They are either going to other relief camps run by Christian groups or are taking refuge in other states.

According to certain missionary officials, the victims of the violence have reason to fear.

“Their lands will be forcefully be taken away. And foremost they might lose their lives,” reasons the Archbishop of Orissa, Raphael Chennath.

But there are also those who know no fear. They keep hope and courage alive in the victims.

“These victims have tremendous faith on God. Despite losing everything, they believe that they can forgive and forget,” the Superior General of the Missionary of Charity, Sister Nirmala.

Presently, there are 53 companies of paramilitary forces in Kandhamal.

The state home secretary has requisitioned the stay of the forces for another three months. Perhaps, the home secretary’s office has a fair idea that the crisis is not about to blow over.