SCMP-Christian crackdown

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South China Morning Post
Wednesday, July 14, 1999

Christian crackdown
WILLIAM BARNES

The persecution of Christians is on the rise in Burma because the military
equates it with political deviance, the Chin Human Rights Organisation
reported yesterday.
In a land covered with Buddhist pagodas, the army has banned the planting of
crosses on hilltops in the heavily Christian ethnic Chin state in northeast
Burma.

As many as 70 Christian evangelists in, or from, the Chin state have been
arrested this year.

The security forces have also turned a blind eye to assaults by monks on
Christians, the organisation said.

The military Government has been strongly promoting Buddhism as a
potentially unifying national religion.