austraLasia 760
NORTH-EAST INDIA: SDB ARCHBISHOP SADDENED BY LOCAL
VIOLENCE
SHILLONG: 26th November 2003 -- Travel
advisories in the Asia-Australia region have been describing the Northeast
States of India in recent weeks as 'areas of instability' particularly in parts
of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya. The welcome
ceasefire in Kashmir further west is yet another reason why, at least
internationally, the problems further east may not have grabbed the world's
attention, but for Salesian Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong, these weeks
have been especially saddening.
"I feel deeply shocked and saddened to have heard
the news of the cruel attack on one young innocent boy who is pursuing religious
studies in Sacred Heart College and who is only preparing himself for ministry
in the Church", Archbishop Jala says in a statement released on 18th
November. In fact Sacred Heart College Mawlai is a Salesian conducted
theologate and the student, a young lay person by the name of Eldrin Tisso,
attending a one year course in theology for non-ministerial candidates, is
fighting for his life in a local hospital after being set fire to by militants
fighting for independence and against those they judge to be ethnically and
culturally 'other'. This includes both tribal people, (Khasi, Kabi) and
immigrants from other parts of the subcontinent.
Archbishop Jala describes how he has visited the
student in question and prayed with him but also for those who have perpetrated
the violence. In another instance Archbishop Jala describes something of
the problem that has touched so many people east from the border of Meghalaya
State with Assam, causing them to flee their homes and villages and take shelter
at a village called Sahsniang, about 120 kms east of Shillong. This
village lies within the Shillong Archdiocese. There are at least 4,500
displaced persons there, he says. The Church has been prominent in
providing relief for them.
The problem has also affected the Salesian province
of Guwahati which effectively covers the area of present insurgency. The
Salesians have been active over many years in this area, and many young men
belonging to groups now being targeted by dissidents, have been attracted to the
Salesian way of life. This has caused the provincial to wisely relocate
several of his younger candidates in order to prevent the possibility of them
attracting violence of the kind visited upon Tisso Eldrin.
The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), an
outlawed group, is largely responsible for the violence. Archbishop Jala
has appealed strongly to governments in both Meghalaya and Assam states to do
all they can to preserve peace and harmony.
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