Five years on, Gujarat awaits “truth and justice”
Godhra (AsiaNews) – Clarity about the causes and perpetrators of the massacre and justice for the victims. This is what the Indian Church has asked for on the fifth anniversary of a fire on a train in Godhra, west India that sparked ethnic-religious conflict in Gujarat in 2002. The clashes claimed 2,000 lives, mostly Muslim. Recalling the tragic events, Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes, Secretary General of the Indian Bishops’ Conference, told AsiaNews: “May the past experience awaken in the collective consciousness of the nation a desire to build social harmony.”
Chronology of the massacre
Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) yesterday held special prayers at Godhra station where on February 27, 2002, 59 passengers died in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express. Most victims were members of the VHP returning from a campaign to demand the construction of a Hindu temple in Ayodhya. Within hours of the tragedy, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi declared it was a terrorist attack and the Gujarat Police said it was a planned conspiracy of a Muslim group. The next day, Muslims across the state were targeted in a pogrom that lasted more than two months. More than 2,000 people were killed, nearly 400 women raped, 563 places of worship destroyed, and more than 200,000 left homeless.
The police arrested 110 Muslims under a now defunct anti-terror law while most of around 1000 Hindus who were arrested for taking part in the violence were released on bail.
Waiting for justice
Five years on, there are 81 relief camps with around 30,000 displaced people who live without basic amenities like water or electricity, employment for adults and education for children.
The cause of the fire is still disputed. While the Railway Ministry reports say it was an accident, the Gujarat police insist it was a terrorist conspiracy. In March last year, a federal commission of inquiry into the fire on the train cleared the Muslim community of all responsibility.
In November, the Supreme Court of the Indian Union demanded that the Gujarat state government hand over the case files relating to 17 bloody episodes of interfaith violence that occurred in the state in 2002. It chastised the Gujarat government for having "completely forgotten the criminal code” in handling these cases. All 17 cases are to be reopened.
Criticism by church and human rights activists
The local government, which at the time was run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been harshly criticized by human rights activists and by the National Commission of Minorities for its biased handling of the crisis and for failing to deliver justice to the victims.
Mgr Fernandes, archbishop of Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, talked about “justice denied”. He said: “Five years on, the truth is still elusive, for the victims whose lives went up in flames in those massacres, the search for the truth and justice remains just that……a search.” The bishop drew attention to the commitment of the Church which “through local groups works with other religious communities to create a common platform to favour dialogue.”
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12/07/2012
