Religious freedom deteriorates in conflict-ravaged Myanmar: report

By Admin 01 Nov 2024

DMG Newsroom
1 November 2024, Sittwe

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a report on October 31 that religious freedom in Myanmar has deteriorated as the conflict between the military regime and opposition forces continues unabated.

The report "highlights military and political developments within Burma [Myanmar], attacks on religious communities, conditions for various refugee populations - including the predominantly Muslim Rohingya - outside the country, and the global response to this conflict," according to USCIRF.

The USCIRF also said the US government needs to engage with the National Unity Government (NUG) and ethnic armed organisations to prioritise religious freedom issues.

"Throughout the year [2023], the SAC [State Administration Council, as the junta refers to itself] continued to pursue what the United Nations (UN) Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar described as 'increasingly brazen' war crimes in its attempt to quell the disparate opposition forces, including through the increasing use of airstrikes," said the ISCIRF report.

It added: "Since 2021, such tactics have destroyed nearly 200 religious buildings across Burma, including 85 churches in Chin State and 40 Buddhist monasteries, a nunnery, six churches, and three mosques in Sagaing [Region]. In 2023, the Tatmadaw continued to target, occupy, and destroy more houses of worship, particularly those belonging to minority religious communities."

"The military regime, which is using religion to oppress the people, prioritises bombing religious buildings in areas where there is a conflict, and monks are frequently injured," said a local man in Arakan State.

A Buddhist monk was reportedly injured and several buildings were destroyed in two days of junta airstrikes on Hsingaung Village, part of Arakan State's Thandwe Township, on October 29.

According to the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), more than 100 religious buildings were damaged by junta attacks from 2021 to mid-2024.

"The regime has made assumptions and conclusions that there are armed groups in churches, treating their wounded, and are taking up positions in religious buildings and carrying out activities. These religious buildings were bombed without revolutionary forces [being present], so only the religious buildings were damaged," said a local Chin man in Paletwa Township, Chin State.

In Chin State, Thantlang Township has suffered the most damage from the junta airstrikes, while religious buildings were also damaged in Haka, Falam, Kanpetlet, Mindat, Tedim and Tonzang townships.

Customary international humanitarian law requires any armed organisation to protect civilians and bars them from attacking, abducting or using civilians as human shields or targeting civilian dwellings.

"The military regime is killing people with ease, so destroying religious buildings is not even considered," said a female social activist.

The civilian death toll attributed to the Myanmar military's February 2021 coup stood at 5,909 as of October 31, 2024, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a statement on Thursday.