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.
__________________________
'austraLasia' is an email news service for the Salesian Family of Asia-Pacific
