Indian Church backs villagers against steel giant

(March 8, 2010) The Catholic Church in eastern India’s Orissa state is standing by villagers fighting Korean steel giant POSCO that they say threatens to displace thousands with its multi-billon dollar projects in the state. “We oppose anything that goes against the interests of the communities. The Church cannot accept projects that would make people refugees in their own land,” Bishop John Barwa of Rourkela told UCA News last week. Villagers are fighting government plans to lease 1,600 hectares of village land to POSCO for its three projects of iron mining, a steel processing plant and a private port. With protests rising, the US$12 billion plan to produce 12 million tons of steel a year is threatened. This is the biggest ever foreign investment project in India. Father Nicholas Barla, a tribal leader said the proposed mines would displace 42,493 people in Sundargarh district alone. Of these 32,044 are tribal, dalit and poor Christians. Activists say the projects would also seriously damage the ecology, environment and water bodies in the state. They note that about 1000 hectares of the land pledged are forests, which the company plans to clear. John Dayal, president of the All India Christian Council, who attended the protest meetings, said the Church must support “the movement against large projects which are denuding forests, marginalizing tribal people and trivializing human dignity.”