[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 26, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E200-E201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CHURCH ATTACKED BY HINDU MILITANTS--PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN INDIA 
                               CONTINUES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MIKE PENCE

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 26, 2002

  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the other day the Washington Times ran an 
excellent article on an attack on a church outside Mysore, India by the 
Bajrang Dal, a branch of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which 
is the parent organization of the ruling party, the BJP. The attack 
seriously wounded about 20 people, according to the article. 
Approximately 70 attackers wore the saffron headbands that symbolize 
the militant Hindu nationalists. They attacked while worship was going 
on.
  This attack is part of what the Times called a ``new spate of 
attacks.'' It also reports that in February, two church workers and a 
teen-age boy were shot while praying and the boy was injured; two 
Christian missionaries were beaten with rods while bicycling home; and 
a Christian cemetery in Port Blair was vandalized. Those are just 
incidents that have occurred this month. Unfortunately, they are part 
of a pattern that church leaders described as a ``reign of terror.''
  Since Christmas 1998, a number of priests have been murdered in 
India, several nuns have been raped (with the enthusiastic endorsement 
of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), another branch of the RSS), 
churches have been burned, missionary Graham Staines and his two young 
sons have been burned to death while sleeping in their jeep, Christian 
schools and prayer halls have been attacked, and numerous other acts of 
violence and/or hatred have taken place. In 1997, police opened fire on 
a Christian religious festival, putting an end to it.
  Last year, a member of the Indian cabinet said that everyone who 
lives in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. It 
is clear, Mr. Speaker, that India intends to ram its Hindutva policy 
down the throats of everyone in the subcontinent.
  Christians are not the only ones being oppressed by the militant 
Hindu regime in Delhi. Sikhs, Kashmiris, Dalits, and others have also 
been tyrannized in the name of Hindu nationalism. Just recently more 
Kashmiris have been made to disappear by the Indian government. A 
report by the Movement Against State Repression shows that India holds 
over 52,000 Sikh political prisoners and Amnesty International reports 
that there are tens of thousands of others. The government's forces 
have murdered more than a quarter of a million Sikhs, over 200,000 
Christians in Nagaland, over 75,000 Kashmiri Muslims, and thousands 
upon thousands of people from the Dalit caste, as well as minorities 
such as Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, Bodos, and others. How can India 
call itself a democracy when things like this go on with the support of 
the government? These are not the acts of a democracy.
  It is important for America to speak out. I am speaking out today 
because religious and political freedoms are essential democratic 
values. America must bring its power to bear peacefully in support of 
true democracy and freedom in South Asia, and if our influence does not 
move the region toward real freedom, then we should be willing to use 
whatever other peaceful means we have at our disposal to end the 
violence and bring peace, freedom, and stability to all the peoples and 
nations there.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Times article in the Record at 
this time.

               [From the Washington Times, Feb. 25, 2002]

                New Spate of Attacks Targets Christians

                            (By Julian West)

       New Delhi.--Violence against India's Christian minority has 
     surged this year, with reports of at least one attack each 
     week in what church leaders are calling a ``reign of terror'' 
     spreading throughout the country.
       In the most recent incident, about 70 men wearing saffron 
     headbands--an emblem of the Hindu nationalist--attacked a 
     church near Mysore, in South India, where children were 
     attending a catechism class. The attack last week seriously 
     wounded about 20 people.
       In other incidents this month:
       Two church workers and a teen-age boy were shot at while 
     praying, and the boy was injured.
       Two Christian missionaries were beaten with iron rods while 
     bicycling home.
       A Christian cemetery in Port Blair on the Andaman Islands 
     was vandalized.
       Four of the attacks were in Uttar Pradesh, the North Indian 
     state where counting in local government elections ends today 
     and where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 
     fared poorly.
       Much of the violence against Christians has taken place in 
     states ruled by the BJP, but church leaders say that last 
     year the number of incidents in states like Karnataka, which 
     has a Congress party government, has risen alarmingly.
       In the latest and most violent incident in the state, an 
     angry mob wearing saffron headbands, carrying placards and 
     shouting anti-Christian slogans descended on the Holy Family 
     church in Hinkal, a suburb of Mysore, just after Mass last 
     Sunday.
       ``The children were crying,'' said Father William, who was 
     protected by his parishioners. ``They could see their parents 
     being beaten up, from the windows.''
       About 20 people were later taken to the hospital.
       Describing the incident as unprecedented in a city whose 
     roughly 30,000 Christians have previously had good relations 
     with their Hindu neighbours. Father Nerona, a member of the 
     Diocesan Council, said that he thought the attack had been 
     provoked by a misunderstanding over a round of Christmas 
     carols.
       ``They said the carols were converting people, but actually 
     the carol singers only went

[[Page E201]]

     to Catholic homes,'' he said. ``We were terribly shocked. 
     This has always been such a peaceful city.''
       The recent attacks follow what church leaders call ``a 
     false lull,'' occurring after the international outrage last 
     year over the burning alive of Graham Staines, an Australian 
     missionary, and his two small sons last year.
       ``Physically, many of the incidents are now less obvious,'' 
     said John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian 
     Council. ``But there is a 24-hour reign of terror, which 
     occasionally bursts into violence.''
       Last year the Indian government reported 240 incidents--
     including about 22 murders--in the year leading up to 2000, 
     and almost every week newspapers carry an account of a 
     ransacked church, an assaulted or murdered priest or a 
     vandalized cemetery.
       Many of the assailants are member of the Bajrang Dal, a 
     militant Hindu nationalist organization linked to the BJP, 
     which has carried out many of the most violent attacks on 
     Christians in India.
       Church leaders maintain, however, that all the attacks--
     whether they are carried out by the Bajrang Dal or its fellow 
     Hindu nationalist organizations--have the tacit approval of 
     the BJP government.
       ``The Bajrang Dal are ruffians, but someone must have told 
     them what to do the previous night,'' said Mr. Dayal.

     

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