RAIKIA (KANDHMAL): A huge question mark is now hovering over when the thousands of
Christian refugees, cowering after a bloody purge, will be psyc
A relief camp in Kandhmal. (TOI Photo) |
hologically ready to leave the relief camps and head home.
As a TOI team visited shelters put up by the administration and NGOs in the districts hit by violence — Kandhmal, G Udayagiri, Raikia, and Nuagam — it looks as if it would take a long time before broken families and homes are able to gather courage to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.
"They came in a large group, too many to count," said Asha Lata Naik on Monday, clutching her six-month-old child at the Vijaya High School relief camp for homeless tribals of Raikia and adjoining villages. "Then two of them raised their swords high and brought it down on my husband's head. He bled to death in front of me. He had been working hard to save money so that he could celebrate our child's first birthday. Tell me how will I go home." Fear is so pervasive here that one can almost touch it. In fact, there is such terror that Christians say they will try to remain in the relief sites for as long as they can.
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