"I am Prepared to Serve those Who Attacked Us" Fr. Chellen
(Fr. Thomas Chellen, 57, was one of the first victims of the anti-Christian pogrom launched by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad after the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. He was severely beaten up, abused, wounded, stripped and paraded. A nun working with him was subjected to the same violence, perhaps treated with even greater brutality. His Pastoral Centre in Kandhamal was one of the first Christian i nstitutions to be destroyed and torched. Father Chellen, who is now recuperating in a Mumbai hospital, is sharing his 'calvary experience' with AsiaNews correspondent Nirmala Carvalho in the following write-up)
For the past seven years I have served as the Director of the Divyajyoti Pastoral Centre (in the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar). The Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) personnel were stationed in front of our Centre for more than a month because of a number of (violent) incidents in Tumbudhibandth after a cow was allegedly slaughtered.
When I saw the news of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati's murder on TV, I called the OSAP for protection. They told me not to worry: "We are here." I was reassured. But around 4.30 p.m. on 24th August a huge crowd came to our gate shouting slogans.
Fearing for our lives, a fellow priest, a sister (working in the centre) and I tried to escape jumping over the back fence of the property. We could hear people shouting, doors breaking, windows shattering. After a short while we saw smoke and flames (bellowing from the Centre).
Feeling unsafe we fled to the forest and stayed there for a few hours. Around 8 p.m. we reached the house of Prahlad Pradhan in K. Nuagaon village; he was kind enough to accommodate us giving us food and shelter.
Around 9 a.m. on 25th August, from my room window I saw a crowd demolishing a small church.
Realising the danger, Prahlad hid me in an outhouse and locked me from outside. At about 1.30 p.m. a group of 40 to 50 people came, broke open the door and pulled me out. Outside I saw the sister standing amidst the crowd; they had caught her first.
Immediately they began hitting me all over, forcefully removing my shirt and baniyan (vest). They kept asking me: "Why did you kill the Swamiji? How much money did you give the killers? Why are you conducting so many meetings at the Pastoral Centre?"
Pushing and pulling us, the crowd led us to the Janavikas Building on the other side of the road. They were armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron rods, sickles etc. and continued beating us once inside the building….!
Savage is not enough to convey the sense of it all. The manner in which they were beating us with axes, spades, crowbars, it was as if we were not humans. These attackers, I am sure, were paid by others to torture us.
They took me out, poured kerosene on me and were set to strike a match box to burn me. At that point one of them suggested they take me into the middle of the road to burn me there. They dragged us to the road where they made me kneel down for ten minutes. Someone searched for a rope to tie us together and burn us alive. Then they decided to parade us through Nuagaon, half a kilometre from there. We were paraded half naked. They told us to fold our hands and walk. They tried to strip our remaining clothes, but somehow both of us managed to resist. As we walked, people showered us with blows.
When we got to Nuagaon at 2.30 p.m. there were a dozen OSAP agents on the side of the road. "Sir, please help us!" I told one of them. Someone from the crowd struck me hard for seeking help. There were no police personnel at the Nuagaon outpost.
The crowd forced us to sit by the road side. Someone kicked me in the face. Then someone I knew very well, a shopkeeper in Nuagaon, went to gather used tires to burn us.
At one point, the crowd told us to go to Nuagaon; along with one of the officers we were taken to a police outpost. There I was bandaged and had some ointment applied on my wounds.
Around 9.00 p.m. an Inspector and a team of policemen took us to Balliguda. One of the people from the crowd that attacked us remained at the police outpost until we left for Balliguda, watching all our movements. Once in Balliguda we were sheltered at a police bungalow; people there were very helpful.
At 9 a.m. on 26th August we were taken to the local police station where the Inspector asked us whether we wanted to file a complaint. When we said yes he told us to be quick because he was preparing to move us to Bhubaneshwar (280 kilometres from Nuagaon).
We filed three complaints, one for the attack against the pastoral centre, one for the attack against me and one for the assault on the nun.
At 4 p.m. we were put on a bus and, with other passengers, were brought to Bhubaneshwar. At 2 a.m. we reached one of our centres there.
Thousands of people are on the run, (perhaps more than 50,000) hiding in the forest. Right now there is not a single priest or nun in Kandhamal district; everyone has fled. Plundering goes on and people are hunted down. In my agony I pray for the Christians in the forest. But even that is not a safe place. If my bishop sends me again, I am willing to return. I feel no bitterness or anger; I am even prepared to serve those who attacked us. I am glad to be part of the rich history of persecution of the Catholic Church.
Retrieved from http://www.indiancurrents.org.in/nirmala.htm on 09.08.2008
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