Pro-China Rebels Shut Down Baptist Churches, Arrest Baptist Pastors, Expel Catholic Nuns [Myanmar]

AsiaNews ^

[marshmallow]

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) detained 92 pastors, closed all Protestant churches, and forcibly drafted 41 youth, both male and female. Salesian nuns who provided for education and health care in Mong Mau were expelled. For Bishops’ Conference spokesman, “The authorities’ behaviour is wrong.”

Yangon (AsiaNews) – The campaign to suppress Christianity in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Shan State continues with crosses removed, three Baptist churches destroyed, 52 closed, 92 pastors arrested and 41 students forcibly enrolled. Myanmar's largest ethnic army also shut down a Catholic mission run by Salesian missionary nuns and ordered the latter’s expulsion.

Rev Lazaru, a spokesman for the ethnic Lahu Baptist community, released a statement yesterday (picture 2) in which he denounces the rebel acts of violence near the city of Mongpauk. In it, he notes that dozens of clergymen were taken into custody, Baptist schools shut down and dozens of students, both male and male, forcibly recruited into the rebel force. To add insult to injury, the people who were detained had their heads shaved.

Although the UWSA, in the statement announcing its action, used the Chinese term jidujiao, a word that applies to Protestants and evangelical Christians, and not tianzhujiao, used for Catholics, the latter were targeted as well.

The hilly Wa area falls under the Diocese of Lashio, suffragan of Mandalay, and has no Catholic churches. However, at Mong Mau, some Salesian nuns teach and serve as healthcare providers to locals. Last Monday, Wa officials shut down the mission and expelled them.

The Catholic presence in the Wa area is quite recent but very important, said Mariano Soe Naing, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar (CBCM) and head of the latter’s Office for Social Communication (CBCM-OCS).

[neverevergiveup]

In my humble opinion, every ‘American’ politician, every ‘American’ businessman, every ‘American’ lobbyist etc. who pushed an agenda that benefitted the ChiComs are complicit in actions against America.

The ChiComs learned from the failure of the USSR that the only way to compete against the West was to embrace capitalism economically - and they did. However, they have ‘top down’ state-controlled capitalism, and the ability to artificially lower prices for what they produce, and the ability to control wages from the top down. So they aren't really ‘capitalists’. They are just totalitarian dictators who are allowing some citizens to accumulate wealth - for now - in order to advance their economy and fund their military.

[BeadCounter]

The pro-China rebels are the “authority” in the area. I guess, maybe they are not Maoist rebels now as India has, Peru has (Shining Path). Good article that I’d like to see more follow up on.

At least, it doesn’t sound like they are killing people.