Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

RIGHTS-BURMA: Christians Pay for Junta&#39s Insecurities

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 21 2007 (IPS) - Burma&#39s persecuted Christian minority is receiving a long overdue hearing in the Western capitals of the world, a turn that could invite more international pressure on the country&#39s military regime, already under fire for a litany of human rights abuses.

Tuesday saw testimony from the Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a global human rights organisation championing religious freedom, presented at a hearing on Burma at the European Parliament in Brussels. It came weeks after a delegation from Burma&#39s Chin and Kachin ethnic communities, where a majority are Christian, raised the issue of religious persecution for the first time during visits to meet government officials in London, Washington D.C., New York and Berlin.

Targeting Christians stems partly from the junta&#39s suspicions of any groups in the country having links to organisations outside, says Pastor Simon, principal of a Baptist seminary in a Karen refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border. ‘&#39The military is worried about Christians communicating with churches beyond Burma.&#39&#39

‘&#39The military regime has become more insecure over the past 10 years because the situation inside Burma has worsened,&#39&#39 he told IPS. ‘&#39So, more Christians are being targeted.&#39&#39

‘&#39This has been an ignored issue. Many in the international community are not aware of the religious discrimination faced by Christians among the ethnic communities,&#39&#39 says L. Dwelling, of the Kachin Women&#39s Association, Thailand, who participated in the recent lobbying mission to Europe. ‘&#39We need to raise our voices this year for the international community to hear us.&#39&#39

Discrimination against Christians in the Kachin State is ‘&#39increasing,&#39&#39 she told IPS. These include the junta denying the Kachins the right to higher education in prized fields such as medicine. ‘&#39Some of my friends had to change their names and religion to seek entry into the medical colleges,&#39&#39 she said. ‘&#39Land owned by church groups is confiscated and in some places you cannot celebrate religious festivals openly.&#39&#39

Late February, an activist from a Chin women&#39s group revealed a more disturbing picture at a conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York. ‘&#39Often rapes have been carried out with extreme brutality and in some cases they have resulted in the death of the victim. In one case, a woman was stripped naked and hung on a cross, in a deliberate act of mockery against her Christian religion,&#39&#39 Cheery Zahau, spokeswoman for the Women&#39s League of Chinland, was quoted as having said, according to media reports.

The Kachin State is the northernmost region of Burma, sharing international borders with India and China. It was one of many ethnic regions where a separatist battle raged between Kachin rebel groups and Burmese troops till 1994, when a truce was struck. Yet, as pro-Kachin websites reveal, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta calls itself, has used the peace agreement to muscle its way in. On Mar. 5, ‘&#39Christian properties in Sadung Region of Kachin State (were) forcefully captured and destroyed,&#39&#39 states ‘kachinstate.com&#39. ‘&#39There has been no information about re-allotment of church or religious lands and properties.&#39&#39

Chin State, where over 70 percent is Christian, is located along western Burma, close to the Indian and Bangladesh borders. Chin Christians face double persecution, revealed ‘Hidden Crimes Against Chin Women,&#39 a report released in mid-2006. One is for being Chin; the other for being Christian, a Chin student had told the report&#39s researchers.

The extent of persecution Christians across Burma face was captured in a study released late January by the CSW. It drew attention to officially sanctioned policies by this South-east Asian country&#39s ministry of religious affairs such as the 17-point ‘&#39Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma.&#39&#39 The opening section of this programme declares, ‘&#39There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised.&#39&#39

According to the report ‘Carrying the cross: The military regime&#39s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma&#39, the junta&#39s tactics range from ‘&#39making it difficult for churches in Rangoon to obtain permission to renovate their buildings, to pastors in Chin State being killed&#39&#39.

‘&#39In addition to the destruction of crosses and churches, and the restrictions on the construction of new churches, the SPDC regularly and deliberately disrupts church services, physically assaults pastors and church leaders, and uses pastors for forced labour, particularly on Sundays,&#39&#39 it adds.

‘&#39There are explicit acts of hostility against Christians,&#39&#39 Benedict Rogers, author of the CSW report, said during a telephone interview from Britain. ‘&#39The restrictions are aimed at all Christians, not only those from the ethnic communities. If you are a Christian, you cannot get a job in the government service.&#39&#39

The report was prompted to add to the picture of religious persecution in Burma, already known for its harsh measures against Burmese Muslims and also for throwing Buddhist monks in jail, he added. ‘&#39It is definitely a new issue, because the international community has not focused on the extent of such abuse.&#39&#39

Burma, which has been under the grip of successive military regimes since a 1962 coup, is predominantly Buddhist – close to 85 percent of the country 52 million people. Most follow the Theravada school of Buddhism as in Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Christians account for nearly five percent of the population, as do animists, while Muslims make up four percent and Hindus one percent.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group, the persecution of Muslims in Burma ranks among the worst form of religious discrimination in the country. It stems from draconian laws that deny Muslims citizenship, the right to get an education, to secure a job and to travel. There have also been government-instigated &#39pogroms&#39 against this religious minority.

The other charges levelled against the junta by rights groups include forced labour, conscription of child soldiers, using rape as a weapon of war, jailing political opponents and denying the space for press freedom.