Myanmar’s military has torched and occupied churches and killed and detained pastors in its latest brutal offensive in the majority-Christian Chin province on its northwest border with India. At least seven churches have been damaged or destroyed due to deliberate shelling by soldiers.
The deliberate targeting of churches and pastors comes amid a growing humanitarian disaster in the conflict-ridden country’s border regions and escalating clashes between the junta – which seized power in a February coup – and ad hoc guerrilla groups and long-standing ethnic armies.
At flashpoint
Chin State, which has a population of 480,000, 90% of whom are Christians, has seen some of the fiercest resistance since the coup. It is now at flashpoint, with the UN and others warning of an ominous military build-up that could herald a major assault.
‘The situation in North-Western Burma today echoes the situation in Rakhine State in 2017 before the military offensive against the Rohingya,’ said Anna Roberts, from Burma Campaign UK. The military’s brutal ethnic-cleansing operation there prompted a mass exodus of the Muslim minority into Bangladesh, many of whom still languish in huge refugee camps with no hope of returning home safely.
Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN special envoy for Myanmar, said the country was already facing ‘an internal armed conflict’ and warned specifically that the military was conducting clearing operations in Chin.
Fleeing to the jungle
Typically, attacks begin with villages being bombed with incendiary shells, with the local church firmly in its sights. People have had to flee into the jungle, go to other villages, or even cross to India, to avoid being arrested, raped or killed. The tactics are the same as the Burmese army has used for decades to strike fear into the hearts of those they are seeking to suppress.
Simon Percy of Pastor Training International (PTI), which works extensively in Myanmar, says: ‘Many pastors whom PTI have taught to preach the gospel over the past few years have relatives in Chin, and some have experienced these brutal attacks themselves.
Giving thanks to God
‘However, whilst the junta try to break the spirit of these people, many give thanks for God’s grace and work in their lives. Encouragingly too, Christians have begun to organise assistance for the refugees, opening their homes, despite the threat of arrest for doing so, to those who have fled from other villages and seeking to provide food and clothing from their own scarce resources. They care for all in need – including the small number of Buddhists who have also been affected’.
One encouraging recent development is that at one of the villages targeted by the military, the villagers returned and held a service at the church that had been destroyed.
