This aerial photo taken on Oct 29, 2021, shows smoke and fire from Thantlang, in Chin State, where more than 160 buildings were destroyed caused by shelling from Junta military troops, according to local media (Photo: AFP)
By UCA News reporter
Jan 26 2024
The conflict following the 2021 military coup in Buddhist-majority Myanmar has seriously impacted Christians and their places of worship in the country’s only Christian-majority state, according to a report released this week.
The report by the Myanmar Witness project of the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience analyzed five case studies of airstrikes in western Chin state in 2023.
“These examples indicate how conflict across Chin is impacting churches — sites that come under special protection under international Hague Conventions,” it said in the report released on Jan 24.
Rebel strongholds and townships placed under martial law have experienced more attacks, the report added.
Seven townships, including Hakah, Falam, and Thantlang in Chin state are among 37 townships across the country where martial was imposed on Feb 2, 2023, by the junta after toppling the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February 2021.
The military regime is intolerant towards non-Buddhist religious minorities. In 2017, the military undertook a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the western Rakhine state that saw more than 740,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.
The mountainous and underdeveloped Chin state, where 85 percent of its 478,000 people are Christians, has been at the forefront of resistance.
More than 65,500 people are internally displaced while over 59,300 have taken refuge in neighboring India, according to the United Nations.
The report said the conflict is having “a sustained and long-term impact on the Christian population of Chin state.”
“The day-to-day activities” are disrupted as a result of the conflict, the report noted.
There is degradation around sites and places of worship protected under international law, the report observed.
The extent of the impact on places of worship across Myanmar is unknown but the “conflict is having a sustained and long-term impact on the Christian population of Chin state,” the report said.
The report blamed the Myanmar Air Force, which has “overwhelming superiority” compared to rebel groups, for the attacks.
The rebel groups include ethnic Christians.
At least 100 religious sites, including 55 Christian institutions, have been destroyed since the February 2021 coup, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization.
“The destruction of Christian churches is deliberate to inflict psychological trauma on a specific religious and cultural community. They are not collateral damage,” according to Salai Za Uk Ling, deputy executive director of Chin Human Rights Organization.
Christian leaders have repeatedly called for the protection of places of worship, citing the Hague Conventions which call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing during an armed conflict.
Christians make up 6 percent of Myanmar’s population of 54 million. Buddhism is the state religion with nearly 89 percent of the population adhering to it. – UCA News
