Sister Nirmala’s appeal to Orissa Chief Minister
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008
“On behalf of our suffering brothers and sisters in Orissa who are in deep anguish, pain and constant insecurity, deprived of basic necessities of life and are crying out for immediate help, I urgently appeal to you in the name of God as the Chief Minister of Orissa to do all you can to put an end to this ongoing violence since 24th August 2008 causing untold terror, loss of property and even loss of life and human dignity, violating basic human rights of our own brothers and sisters.” This is the fervent appeal Sister Nirmala, Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charity, made in a letter she wrote Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on August 28.
It was in this letter that she narrated, in great anguish, how a young nun was “hunted out of her hiding place and stripped naked by the mob and her virginity grossly violated in public, without any help from the police present there.”
Gravity & scale
Sister Nirmala informed the Chief Minister of the gravity and spreading scale of the attacks in Orissa “triggered” by the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four of his associates in his ashram in Kandhamal district. “Violence,” she pointed out, “has ranged from slogan shouting, throwing of stones, burning of vehicles, Churches and Church Institutions which are at the service of the people, the homes of countless Christian families being vandalised, ransacked and then torched. People have been beaten up. There have been incidents of priests and sisters being beaten up by mobs. Police in most cases have been unable to provide protection. Atrocities continue to take place while the police remain inactive. In some cases hostels and orphanages have been burnt and the children left without shelter and care. The house of our Brothers, Missionaries of Charity, was attacked and the patients were beaten up so that they may reveal the hiding place of the Brothers.”
Shelter in forests
The head of the Catholic religious order founded by Mother Teresa narrated in her letter how “people, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers…had to take shelter in the forests and mountains for fear of losing their lives – without food and without shelter from the rain. But they are not safe.”
She dealt specifically with arrangements that Missionaries of Charity had made, with the help of the administration, for the safety of its Sisters, Brothers, and their patients in the strife-torn district. While expressing gratitude to the State government and local administration for this help, she observed that “countless others who are in need have no help.”
Sister Nirmala urged the Orissa Chief Minister to “ask the Central Govt. for as many extra police forces from the Centre as they are willing to give and you need, and to keep them in Orissa for as long as it is necessary to ensure to your full satisfaction that the law and order everywhere in the State is restored.” She asked that “all our suffering people and children, even in the interior parts of the districts, be given protection for their lives, property and their human dignity, that immediate help reaches those who are without food, clothing, shelter and medicines; that the loss of property be compensated; that the facilities for the education of children be restored; and that the people be rehabilitated.”
Wednesday, 01 October 2008
Courtesy: http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093060761300.htm