Persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Burma (Myanmar) has continued even as the country’s military junta has lost control and territory to armed resistance groups, according to a report last week by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
“The situation in Burma continues to deteriorate as the military junta loses control while ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) are consolidating territory and establishing parallel government structures,” the report stated. “These escalating conflicts negatively affect conditions for freedom of religion or belief.”
The Burmese military and the ruling State Administration Council (SAC), which had lost stable control of about 86 percent of the country’s territory and 67 percent of its population by March, have targeted religious leaders and sites in efforts to maintain authority, according to the report.
Parallel models of governance providing public services have emerged in some areas controlled by resistance elements. At the same time, the pro-democracy National Unity Government (NUG) has received broad popular support for rebuilding the country as a peaceful, multiethnic state, though many ethnic minorities are concerned that the NUG is dominated by members of the Bamar Buddhist majority.
The NUG has made some efforts to include minority representation, such as the appointment of an ethnic Rohingya, Aung Kyaw Moe, to a ministerial post, as it has appealed for international recognition as the legitimate government of Burma, the report stated.
The Burmese military has targeted religious leaders in order to intimidate ethno-religious minorities, according USCIRF. In April the regime released the Rev. Hkalam Samson, a Kachin Baptist Convention leader sentenced in April 2023 to six years in prison on fabricated charges of terrorism, unlawful association and inciting opposition, along with 3,300 prisoners but rearrested him within 24 hours, according to the report. Authorities released him again in July.
Denomination members attribute the detention of leaders such as Pastor Samson to the military’s effort to intimidate and coerce the Kachin Baptist Convention and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
“Attacks on religious leaders committed by unknown assailants are not investigated,” the report stated. “On March 18, 2024, gunmen shot a Kachin Baptist pastor in Mogaung Township. On April 12, two masked individuals shot a Catholic priest during Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in Mohnyin village in Kachin State.”
The military on June 19 shot and killed a senior Buddhist monk in Mandalay Region, Bhaddanta Muninda Bhivamsa, allegedly mistaking his vehicle as belonging to resistance forces, the report noted.
“It is unclear whether the monk was intentionally targeted,” it stated.
The SAC has targeted church buildings and other religious sites, including Buddhist monasteries, in its attacks, according to USCIRF. Conflict since the military coup of February 2021 has destroyed more than 220 church buildings nationwide, including potentially up to 100 Catholic ones in Kayah state, through December, the report stated.
“Attacks on houses of worship continued in 2024,” the report stated. “On Aug. 15, a SAC airstrike targeting a church killed 11 civilians, including two children, and severely injured 11 others in Kyeintali Town, Gwa Township, Rakhine state.”
Military airstrikes on May 11 and 12 destroyed homes and both a Catholic and a Baptist church in Tonzang Township in Chin State, according to USCIRF. In January, the military burned down a Catholic church in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region. Military airstrikes on Feb. 5 struck a village church and damaged other buildings, including a school in Demoso Township, Kayah state.
On June 8, military airstrikes targeted a Buddhist monastery in Sagaing Township, Sagaing Region, killing 13 people, including three Buddhist monks, the report stated.
While Buddhists opposed to the regime have been targeted, the SAC continues its policy of Bamar-Buddhist nationalism.
“This nationalism has historically targeted ethno-religious minorities such as Chin and Kachin Protestants and other Christians, Karenni Catholics and the predominantly Muslim Rohingya,” the USCRIF report stated.
As part of this “Bamarization” policy, the military previously constructed Buddhist pagodas in prominent places and wherever it established military outposts, the report stated. Ethnic armed organizations in Christian-majority areas express confusion on how best to manage these Buddhist structures in the absence of a local Buddhist population, according to the report.
Burma’s population is 87.9 percent Buddhist, 6.2 percent Christian, 4.3 percent Muslim, 0.8 percent animist and 0.5 percent Hindu, according to the CIA Factbook.
While ethnic armed organizations have gained control in areas of some states and regions since Oct. 23, government forces still have considerable power to target religious minorities.
“The military junta’s aerial superiority enabled it to target resistance groups, including religious communities that support these groups, even as the resistance has made advances on the ground,” the USCIRF report states.
Different Chin communities, which are predominantly Christian, in December 2023 established a new “Chinland” constitution and governing structure pledging secular governance, in contrast with the Buddhist-nationalist governance model of the SAC. Even in some areas cleared of the Burmese military, however, stability has remained elusive: Tensions erupted in May between groups associated with the Chinland Council and other Chin state ethnic organizations such as the Zomi Revolutionary Army, the report noted.
“Potential conflict between various ethnic organizations within Chin state could prevent the return of Chin and Zomi peoples who fled, in part, from religious persecution perpetrated by the Burmese military,” it stated.
Similarly, in some parts of Kachin state where the Burmese military remains, minority religious communities are vulnerable especially as the KIA attempts to assert control.
“The instability in Kachin state has heightened vulnerabilities for Christian minority communities and members of the Buddhist majority in the region whose communities, houses of worship, and religious leaders the Burmese military may target for their support of the resistance,” the report stated.
In Rakhine state, where the rebel Arakan Army (AA) of the predominantly Buddhist, Rakhine ethnic minority has continued to consolidate control, the AA as well as the Burmese military appear to have destroyed Rohingya villages and towns, the report noted.
Refugees
Violence since 2021 has led to an increase in internal displacement; as of September, at least 3.4 million people were internally displaced across Burma, according to the report.
“The conflict has sparked new waves of refugees, including from other ethnic and religious minority communities such as Chin, Kachin, and Karenni communities,” the report noted, adding that violence also has pushed more Burmese to flee the country and prevented repatriation of refugees who fled before the coup.
There may be as many as 40,000 Burmese nationals residing in India’s Mizoram state, more than 8,000 in Manipur state, and more than 5,000 in New Delhi; the majority are Chin and Zomi Christian communities who have fled in part due to religious persecution by the Burmese military, the report stated.
Besides Bangladesh and India, the largest concentrations of refugees from Burma are in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia – countries that are not parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the report stated.
“Reports from members of the Chin and Zomi communities in Malaysia – many of whom fled Burma due to the military’s targeting of their religious community – indicate the authorities prevent those unable to receive refugee registration from accessing public services such as education,” USCIRF reported.
