The Myanmar army (Tatmadaw) military has launched two unprovoked attacks, using sophisticated military hardware, against its own citizens in majority Christian states.
The first assault, by three fighter jets on a music festival in Kachin state, killed over 80 people and injured 200. The concert was held by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), a prominent ethnic resistance group. Among those killed were popular musicians, artists, and church elders. The Kachin Baptist Convention said that many of the victims were Christians.
The Tadmadaw’s information office defended the attack as a ‘necessary operation’ that was launched in response to ‘terrorist’ acts by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the KIO’s armed wing, which it denied. It then cut off phone and internet connections and restricted site access for humanitarian groups.
Myanmar’s military junta also shelled a Baptist seminary in Shan State, injuring at least four men in the dormitory aged between 21 and 27. They were hit by shrapnel and sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Videos on social media showed the damage caused. Holes and dents could be seen on the windows, walls and students’ clothing. Another video showed an injured student being carried out for medical treatment. A local resident was quoted as saying that this kind of attack by the military threatens the Christian Bible school and the entire Kachin nation.
Christians make up just over 7% of the whole of mainly Buddhist Myanmar, but are a majority in those parts of the country which border India and China.
‘The attack against the Kachin Bible school was certainly not an accident,’ said Gina Goh of International Christian Concern. ‘The Tatmadaw deliberately targeted a Christian facility knowing how important that faith is to Kachin people. This despicable junta regime should not be tolerated any further by the international community and needs to be removed at once.’
