Human rights organisations expressed alarm on Tuesday over the disappearances of two Baptist pastors who had shown journalists a Catholic church allegedly damaged by airstrikes by Burma government forces who are fighting ethnic Kachin rebels.
Langjaw Gam Seng, 35, and Dumdaw Nawng Lat, 65, were summoned to an army base in northern Shan state in north-eastern Burma on December 24. Heavy fighting has been occurring in the area between the government and a coalition of Kachin and three other ethnic guerrilla groups. Burma’s army has often been accused of human rights abuses in its decades-long battles with ethnic rebels seeking greater autonomy.
Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights said the two men appeared to have been forcibly disappeared and that Burma authorities “should urgently provide information on (their) whereabouts and well-being.
“The disappearances raise grave concerns for the safety of the two men and witnesses to the incident,” the joint statement said.
Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the Burma president’s office, said the military denied detaining the two men and he suggested they might be in Kachin state.
Amnesty International issued a separate statement saying people in the area where the pastors disappeared believed the men “may have been detained by Burma authorities for their role in organizing a visit by journalists in late November 2016 to Monekoe town.” Its statement said Kachin organisations reported the church was partially destroyed by Burma army airstrikes following fierce fighting between the army and the Brotherhood of the Northern Alliance, the coalition of ethnic groups.
Burma’s Kachin Baptist Convention, the largest church organisation among the large Christian Kachin community, said the government and the military have ignored their pleas to clear up the matter.
“We have sent letters to the President’s and the Commander-in-Chief’s offices about the disappearance of our two pastors and we have not received anything from them yet,” said Rev Samson, the chairman of the Kachin Baptist Convention. Township police also failed to respond to inquiries by the two men’s families, he said.
The statement by Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights said Kachin and Shan civil society organisations “have documented unlawful killings, torture, rape, forced labor, and other abuses committed by Burmese military forces against civilians in Northern Shan and Kachin States.”
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.