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Myanmar: Military Junta Rounds Up Dozens of Christian Leaders

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Burmese army military junta which controls Myanmar on Thursday May 23 rounded up dozens of Christian leaders and children in the country’s Kachin state on suspicion of aiding the Kachin Independent Army (KIA) and other anti-Junta militias in in the ongoing civil war, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

Wracked by chronic civil war, and in renewed turmoil since the “Tatmadaw” Buddhist military junta overthrew the government in 2021, Myanmar ranks 17 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

“A group of about 100 soldiers stormed the village in Kachin State’s Hpakant township before dawn and rounded up villagers in a school before marching the detainees away for questioning,” Radio Free Asia Burmese said in a report about Thursday’s incident. “Those detained were accused of supporting the anti-junta Kachin Independence Army, villagers said. The detainees were released after about nine hours of questioning, they said.”

In a current website report about the situation facing Christians in Myanmar, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization says: “Since the military coup in February 2021, Christians have encountered greater violence and tighter restrictions. Believers have been killed and churches have been indiscriminately attacked, even well-established ones in predominantly Christian states like Chin and Kayah.”

“Christians are part of the generally peaceful resistance movement, but fighting has increased across the country, and although not all ethnic minority armed groups are involved, some Christian ones are. Government forces have continued to disproportionately attack Christian villages and churches and also killed Christian aid workers and pastors, often in aerial attacks.” Open Doors says.