In the continuing, if sporadic, violence against the Christians, as many as 25,000 Christians (the district magistrate's figures; Orissa Archbishop Raphael Cheenath told the Election Commission the figure was 50,000) were forced to leave their homes and become the "refugees of Kandhamal", as a local official and a Christian described them. He did not want his name to be revealed for obvious reasons.
Of these refugees, Ilyas believes, only 20 per cent live in the relief camps -- there are two other camps in Mondasur and Mondakia. The others have moved out of the state to places like Mumbai and Delhi.
Ilyas insists he will not vote on April 16.
"We will not vote unless the people who have gone outside the state come back for voting," he asserts. "Nor can we go back to our homes as local Hindu leaders threaten us with murder if we ever went back," he says with a sense of resentment against the police inaction.
Four Christians were killed in his village in front of the police who, he alleges, did nothing to save them.
According to him, all the efforts by the district magistrate, block development officer and tehsildar to restore normalcy to the region has come to naught because of the belligerence of fundamentalist elements in the Hindu community.
"They have openly stated in front of all the district officials that peace can never return to Kandhamal unless Christians re-convert to Hinduism," he says expressing his anger over the state government's inability to bring back peace to this communally charged region.
Image: Kandhamal District Magistrate Krishan Kumar
Also see: Local factors led to Kandhamal violence | India Votes 2009
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