Supreme Court orders additional compensation to Kandhamal violence victims
New Delhi, Aug 02: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered additional compensation to the victims of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district in Odisha, reports IANS.
The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit ordered additional compensation, holding that what was paid to the victims of the violence was not adequate.
The court verdict pronounced by Justice Lalit came on a petition by Archbishop Rachel Cheenath.
What the EXPLOSIVE Kandhamal tribunal report says:
A report of the National People’s Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of ‘torture’ under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilisation and incited horrific forms of violence and discrimination against tribals and Dalit Christians.
The 12-member jury relied on the testimonies of 45 victims, survivors and their representatives.
The report, a copy of which is in rediff.com‘s possession, states that the targeted violence against tribals and Dalit Christian community in Orissa violates the fundamental right to life, liberty and equality guaranteed by the Constitution, and affirmed by the ICCPR, ICESCR, CERD and other international covenants.
The report further says, ‘The 2008 attacks in Kandhamal were widespread, and were executed with substantial planning and preparation. The violence meets all the elements of ‘crimes against humanity’ as defined in applicable international law. Christians who refused to abandon their faith and convert to Hinduism were brutally killed or injured.”
“Burning and destruction of property (residential, official and religious / charitable institutions) was also a predominant form of violence. Human rights defenders have been deliberately targeted for their role in assisting victim-survivors.”
“Moveable property, valuable documents and certificates were looted / destroyed to economically impoverish and lower the socio-economic status of the victim-survivors. Evidence of the attacks was systematically and meticulously destroyed in order to scuttle the processes of justice and accountability.”
The tribunal observed, with deep concern, the silence that prevails in matters of sexual assault, at various levels including documenting, reporting, investigating, charging and prosecuting cases.
The report said, “Threats of sexual violence against women and their daughters continue, heightening women’s sense of vulnerability. The attacks on women violate constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination on the ground of sex, and other international standards, including the CEDAW.”
“The relief measures undertaken by the government have been marked by gender blindness and did not address women’s special needs for privacy, nutrition, medical and psychological support. There is no implementation of government schemes by which widows, single women and women survivors of violence can be restored to a life with dignity.”
With regard to the impact on children, the Tribunal noted: “The impoverishment of the victim-survivor community after the violence has had an adverse impact on the children jeopardising their physical, psychological and intellectual development.”
“Many children have witnessed horrific violence to their close family members and suffer from acute trauma with no access to services of socio-psycho support and healing.”
“Many children have dropped out of school due to the financial inability of the families to bear the expenses, due to fear or discrimination by the school authority. Children have been forced into the labour force, in hazardous conditions, in order to supplement the family income, and have also been trafficked for the purposes of forced labour, sexual exploitation and abuse.”
On the impact that the riots had on socio-economic and cultural rights of victims, the report said, “The violence against Christians has caused large-scale displacement, leaving the victim-survivors with a sense of rootlessness. The destruction of many churches and prayer halls, and the failure to reconstruct them has deprived the victim-survivors of their right to religious practice.”
“The victim-survivor community is unable to freely practise its faith and is thereby reduced to a state of secondary citizenship — an anathema in a democracy like India with a constitution that guarantees fundamental rights.”
“The violence has had an adverse impact on the livelihood and economic well-being of the affected people. Socio-economic boycott of the Christian community continues to be implemented in a variety of ways.”
“The provisions of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act too do not benefit them as it is implemented in manner that discriminates against persons on grounds of religion, caste and gender.”
Slamming the state administration for ‘deliberate dereliction of constitutionally mandated duties’, the report said, “The jury members observed, with grave concern, public officials’ connivance with communal forces, participation in and support to the violence and a deliberate scuttling of processes of justice through acts of commission and omission.”
“The state agencies have blatantly failed to extend much-needed institutional support to victim-survivors and protect them from attacks to their persons and properties, ostracism, socio-economic boycott and subjugation by non-state actors.”
“The state government has also failed in its responsibility to prevent the violence in Kandhamal in August 2008.”
The tribunal lamented that the criminal justice system had been rendered ineffective in protecting victim-survivors and witnesses, providing justice and ensuring accountability for the crimes perpetrated.
“The complicity of the police and their collusion with the perpetrators during the phase of investigation and prosecution, indicate an institutional bias against the targeted Christian tribals and Dalit community.”
“Victims and witnesses engaged in the justice process have been threatened and intimidated, as there is no guarantee of safe passage to and from the courts. Guidelines on witness protection, issued by the Supreme Court and various high courts, are not followed by the fast track courts.”
“Women and child witnesses face extreme vulnerability. The jury further observes that clear gaps exist in substantive, procedural and evidentiary law to prosecute and punish those responsible for targeted mass violence, and that international jurisprudence in this regard has potential relevance for filling the gaps in Indian criminal law.”
