Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Yangon (Agenzia Fides) - The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who arrives in Myanmar today, "look at the suffering of the Kachin ethnic minorities, mainly Christians, victims of atrocities and abuses of the Burmese military": is what Catholic members of the Kachin community in northern Myanmar ask, in a appeal sent to Agenzia Fides, where a bloody clash between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independent Army continues, with great suffering and displacement of civilians. Yesterday two NGOs denounced the "crimes against humanity" committed by the Burmese military (see Fides 29/11/2011) in conflict with the Kachin. The Burmese ethnic minorities, such as Kachin, Shan, Karen, Mon, join in asking that the question of minorities is included on the agenda of reform promoted by the government.
Today a faithful Kachin, who has asked Fides for anonymity, notes that "despite the recent opening of the government, the war against the Kachin minorities continues relentlessly. Witnesses have denounced abuses, rapes, torture of civilians for a long time, carried out with ethnic cleansing methods which are war crimes and crimes against humanity. We ask the U.S. Secretary of State to look at our suffering and to put pressure on the Burmese government, so that it promotes a cease-fire, starts negotiations and undertakes a process of national reconciliation".
The source of Fides reports, by way of an example, the case of Lahpai Kaw, a 28-year-old Christian woman, kidnapped on October 28 and victim of gang rapes continue to be part of the Burmese military. The woman, who is the mother of a 14-month-old girl, is still in the hands of the military. Three soldiers have approached her, threatening and kidnapping her while she was working in the fields, with other members of her family in the village of Hkai Bang, on the border between China and Myanmar. The woman was last seen a month ago at the military post of Bum Mu and her relatives fear that she may have been killed. The family has not entered a formal complaint to the police, for fear of reprisals by the military. "The appeal of the Kachin Christian community - said the source of Fides - is to return the mother to her family and to put an end to the unspeakable violence on innocent people". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/11/2011)
