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US STATE DEPT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 99 (r)
- Subject: US STATE DEPT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 99 (r)
- From: darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 07:10:00
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US STATE DEPT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 99 (BURMA)
Posted in 2 parts for easier downloading
Pt II
In 1998 the NCGUB/HRDU published detailed reports, based largely on
information provided by Karen and Karenni opposition organizations based
in Thailand, of burnings of seven Christian churches in Karenni State and
in the Mergui-Tavoy District of Tenasserim Division by government
security forces during July and August 1997. Many of these church
burnings reportedly were accompanied by extrajudicial killings and other
abuses of noncombatant Christians and the burning of their houses and
other nonreligious buildings. At the times and in the areas where these
abuses reportedly were committed, government security forces were
conducting campaigns aimed at depriving Karen and Karenni insurgent
forces of their civilian base of support.
In 1998 the army's LIB 60 reportedly ordered each village tract (group of
5 to 10 villages) in Ler Doh Township in Karen State to provide 20 women
to become Buddhist nuns at the monastery in Klaw Maw village, where the
progovernment Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) had a base camp.
About 40 women, including some who were previously Christians, reportedly
became Buddhist nuns as a consequence of this order.
In late May 1999, on the Burma-Thai border near Ban Wangtakian, Thailand,
Burmese security forces reportedly arrested and detained a Karen
Christian missionary named Sae and three members of his family,
ostensibly on suspicion of spying for the Karen National Union (KNU).
However, Thai border security officials reportedly pointed out that this
missionary and his family were arrested shortly after KNU guerillas
seized a government soldier and four progovernment village chiefs.
In late November 1998, a major of the army's 7th Tactical Command
reportedly ordered Catholics in Pekhon Township, Shan State, not to
conduct any outdoor religious activities involving more than 10 persons.
This order precluded an annual mass pilgrimage to a mountain cave
believed to be the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. On December
3, security forces and township authorities prevented more than 15,000
pilgrims from climbing up to worship at the cave; instead, they
worshipped in a field near Jayrawbalo village.
Since 1990 government authorities and security forces have promoted
Buddhism over Christianity among the Chin ethnic minority of the western
part of the country. Until 1990 the Chin generally practiced either
Christianity or traditional indigenous religions. The Chin were the only
major ethnic minority in the country that did not largely support any
significant armed organization in active rebellion against the Government
or in an armed cease-fire with the Government. Since 1990 government
authorities and security forces, with assistance from monks of the Hill
Regions Buddhist Missions, coercively have sought to induce Chins to
convert to Theravada Buddhism and to prevent Christian Chins from
proselytizing Chins who practice traditional indigenous religions. This
campaign, reportedly accompanied by other efforts to "Burmanize" the
Chin, has involved a large increase in military units stationed in Chin
State and other predominately Chin areas, state-sponsored immigration of
Buddhist Burman monks from other regions, and construction of Buddhist
monasteries and shrines in Chin communities with few or no Buddhists,
often by means of forced "donations" of money or labor. Chin opposition
groups emerged in 1988 and subsequently developed into active
insurgencies against the Government.
According to multiple detailed and credible reports, authorities and
security forces promoted Buddhism among the Chin in diverse and often
coercive ways. For example, military units repeatedly located their camps
on the sites of Christian churches and graveyards, which were destroyed
to build these camps; local Chin Christians were forced to assist in
these acts of desecration. Local government officials ordered Christian
Chins to attend sermons by newly arrived Buddhist monks who disparaged
Christianity and promised monthly support payments to individuals and
households that converted to Buddhism. Government soldiers stationed in
Chin State reportedly were promised and given higher rank and more pay if
they induced Chin women to marry them and convert to Buddhism. The
authorities reportedly supplied rice to Buddhists at lower prices than to
Christians, distributed extra supplies of other foodstuffs such as sugar
and milk to Buddhists on Sunday mornings while Christians attended
Church, exempted converts to Buddhism from forced labor, and conscripted
young Christian males to do forced labor as army porters as they left
church on Sunday mornings. Soldiers led by officers repeatedly disrupted
Christian worship services and celebrations. Chin Christians were forced
to "donate" labor to clean and maintain Buddhist shrines. Local
government officials separated the children of Chin Christians from their
parents under false pretenses of giving them free secular education and
allowing them to practice their own religion, while in fact the children
were lodged in Buddhist monasteries where they were instructed in and
converted to Buddhism without their parents' knowledge or consent.
Authorities reportedly seized and publicly burned Bibles smuggled in from
India and arrested and detained a Bible smuggler. In Chin State, the
authorities reportedly subjected Christian sermons to censorship. An
anonymous printed pamphlet entitled "The Facts to Attack Christians," a
guide to proselytizing Christians "by means of both violence and
non-violence," was distributed widely by Buddhist monks of the Hill
Region Buddhist Missions.
In 1998 several reports, many based on interviews with refugees, were
published about government abuses of Chin Christians during previous
years. Government authorities repeatedly prohibited Christian clergy from
proselytizing. Soldiers beat Christian clergy who refused to sign
statements promising to stop preaching. Security forces arrested,
detained at length, or physically abused Christian clergy who refused to
stop preaching and who were effective preachers. The Rev. Luai Thang, a
northern Chin Baptist who began a highly effective mission to the largely
traditionalist Paletwa township in southern Chin State in 1991,
reportedly was beaten severely by soldiers under the command of Sgt. Tun
Myint in the village of Pichaungwa in April 1993 while officiating at a
wedding ceremony. He was found killed by a stab wound in August 1993. On
August 2, 1993, soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Thurah Sein Win
reportedly cut the mouth of Baptist pastor Zang Kho Let of Phailen
village in Chin State, an effective preacher, so that he could not longer
talk, then killed him by beating him while suffocating him with a plastic
bag over his head. During the 1990's, a relatively large number of Chin
Christian clergy left the country and claimed refugee status or political
asylum in other countries.
In June and July 1996, six Buddhist monks, led by Abbot Badanna Setta of
the Mindat Hill Region Buddhist Mission, reportedly came to five villages
in Chin State accompanied by six soldiers under Sgt. Chit Shew from Light
Infantry Battalion (LIB) 274. In each village, the abbot reportedly
ordered the immediate and total abolition of Christianity and Christian
churches. In each village, the monks reportedly demanded that church
leaders sign pledges to stop preaching, and the soldiers accompanying
them reportedly beat with gun butts or slashed the faces of church
leaders who refused to sign in three villages. In one village the monks
and soldiers reportedly stopped a Christian religious service at
gunpoint. In another the abbot reportedly ordered the removal of a cross
from a nearby hilltop. In yet another village, the monks and soldiers
reportedly forced all villagers to reregister with the local government
as Buddhists and to exchange their citizens' identity cards identifying
them as Christians with new citizens' identity cards identifying them as
Buddhists. There were also reports that in 1998 a Buddhist missionary
monk in an ethnic Chin area of Sagaing Division beat local Christians who
refused to renounce Christianity.
In some other areas inhabited by Chins, the Buddhist missionaries adopted
somewhat less coercive tactics. Two Buddhist monks accompanied by 2
soldiers from IB 269 who served as their guards reportedly came to a
307-household village in Matupi township, Chin State, in November 1996.
On July 19, 1997, a nonreligious public holiday, local authorities
reportedly ordered all villagers to attend a sermon by one of the monks,
who taught that Jesus was appropriately crucified by the Romans after
committing many crimes, and offered monthly stipends for converts to
Buddhism and free education for their children. In January 1997, three
Buddhist monks reportedly accompanied by a squad of soldiers came to Te
village in Than Tlang township, Chin State. Local government authorities
reportedly ordered all residents to attend the monks' sermon, in which
the monks asked all villagers to convert to Buddhism, and stated that men
who refused to do so would be taken by the army for forced labor as
porters, while those who converted would not. On Christmas Day 1996, in
Thing Cang village in Falam Township, Chin State, soldiers reportedly
broke the teeth of a church elder who asked the second lieutenant
commanding them to stop the soldiers from disrupting a religious ceremony
by singing and dancing. The elder reportedly required hospitalization.
There reportedly have been instances of forced conversion, where young
persons from Chin Christian families have been enticed away with offers
of scholarships and housing and are then allegedly forced to become
Buddhists.
In February 1998, 100 soldiers of LIB 266 and IB 50 reportedly arrested
all Baptist church leaders in Lautu Village Tract in Than Tlang Township,
Chin State, accused them of supporting Chin National Front insurgents,
and ordered them to lie down at noon and look directly at the sun with
their eyes open. The soldiers reportedly beat those who closed their
eyes. A few days later, military authorities reportedly denied the prior
request of the Lautu Baptist Churches to hold a conference on February
22.
In 1998 the commander of LIB 266, based in Lundler village in Than Tlang
Township, Chin State, reportedly required elders of seven nearby villages
to attend a party hosted by the battalion at which alcoholic beverages
were served and forced the elders to drink alcoholic beverages at that
party. Most of the village elders, who were Baptists, preferred not to
drink alcohol for religious reasons; however, their objections were not
heeded.
In November 1998, Lt. Col Saw Thum, commanding LIB 528 near Utalin in
Chin State, reportedly ordered at least nine largely Christian Chin
villages to contribute money to help pay for a Buddhist pagoda festival
that they were then required to attend.
There have been several credible reports of harassment of Christian
churches and pastors in Chin State and in the Chin community elsewhere in
connection with the celebration of the l00th year of Christianity among
the Chin in 1999. On January 5, 1999, after a centennial celebration held
in the town of Than Tlang on January 1-3, citizens of the town erected a
cross atop Vuichip Hill outside the town. The township military commander
reportedly ordered the town's residents to remove the cross, but they
refused to do so, whereupon soldiers reportedly removed the cross and
arrested and interrogated six Chin Baptist pastors. In response the
inhabitants of Than Tlang observed a general strike and day of prayer on
January 6. The township military command then reportedly summoned 20
Christian clergy and church leaders for interrogation. On January 9,
Christian churches around Hakka, the capital of Chin State, joined Than
Tlang's protest by holding special prayer services. The regional military
command then reportedly ordered the postponement, at least until April,
of a centennial celebration to be held in Hakka, and informed Chin
Christian leaders that erection of the crosses on hilltops must be
approved by authorities in Rangoon.
Since the early 1990's, security forces have torn down or forced
villagers to tear down crosses that had been erected outside Chin
Christian villages; these crosses have often been replaced with pagodas,
sometimes built with forced labor. Many of these crosses had been erected
in remembrance of former missionaries from the United States. In 1998 a
report emerged that on October 27, 1993, Burmese soldiers had destroyed
the Johnson Memorial Cross at Tung Tlang Mountain near Hakka, and that a
Buddhist pagoda had been built on the site on the orders of an army
colonel. However, in one case authorities allowed a cross removed from
the top of a hill to be rebuilt on the middle of the hill.
Starting in the early 1990's and as recently as mid-1999, there were
unconfirmed reports of arrests, detentions and imprisonments of Chin
pastors. However, there were no reliable estimates of the number of Chin
pastors in custody during the period covered by this report.
There were reports of governmental restrictions on the religious freedom
of Christians among the Naga ethnic minority in the far northwest of the
country, a group that is smaller and more remotely located than the Chin
minority. These reports suggested that the Government sought to induce
members of the Naga to convert to Buddhism by means similar to those it
used to convert members of the Chin to Buddhism. However, reports
concerning the Naga, although credible, are less numerous than reports
concerning the Chin. Consequently, the status of religious freedom among
the Naga is more uncertain than that of religious freedom among the Chin.
There were no known reports of government violations of religious freedom
in predominantly Christian Kachin State. Most of Kachin State was
administered by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), under a 1989
cease-fire arrangement with the Government that allows KIO forces to
remain armed. By contrast, in the other ethnic minority regions where
Christianity is practiced widely, i.e., Karen and Chin States, armed
ethnic groups were engaged actively in hostilities against the
Government.
Members of the Muslim Rohingya minority Arakan State, on the country's
western coast, continued to experience severe legal, economic, and social
discrimination. The Government denies citizenship status to most
Rohingyas on the grounds that their ancestors allegedly did not reside in
the country at the start of British colonial rule, as required by the
country's highly restrictive citizenship law. In 1991 tens of thousands
of Rohingya, according to some reports as many as 300,000, fled from
Arakan State into Bangladesh following anti-Muslim violence alleged
although not proven to have involved government troops. Many of the
21,000 Rohingya Muslims remaining in refugee camps in Bangladesh in 1999
have refused to return to Burma because they feared human rights abuses,
including religious persecution, as well as other government
restrictions. The U.N. High Commission for Refugees reported that
authorities cooperated in investigating isolated incidents of renewed
abuse of repatriated citizens. However, returnees complained of
government restrictions on their ability to travel and to engage in
economic activity. There were credible reports that Muslims in Rakhine
State have been compelled to build Buddhist pagodas as part of the
country's forced labor program.
There were credible reports that during the spring of 1999 anti-Islamic
booklets were distributed throughout the country through the USDA, a
government-sponsored mass organization. This report followed other
reports in recent years of government instigation or toleration of
violence against Muslims. Some reports suggest that preceding localized
anti-Muslim violence in June 1996 in Shan State and in October 1996 in
Rangoon, individuals affiliated with military intelligence and members of
the progovernment National Unity Party (NUP) publicly distributed to
members of the Buddhist community anonymous anti-Muslim booklets that
contributed materially to anti-Muslim violence. In the spring of 1997,
anti-Muslim riots occurred in cities throughout the country. Although
government security forces effectively protected the Muslim population,
they did not effectively protect businesses owned by Muslims or Islamic
religious sites; about 40 mosques were destroyed, damaged, or looted
between mid-March and mid-April. This violence was triggered at least in
part by the attempted rape of a young Buddhist woman by two Muslim men in
Mandalay on March 15. However, some Muslim leaders and opposition
organizations, as well as anonymous leaflets distributed in the Islamic
community in May 1997, alleged that military intelligence, including
operatives posing as monks, used this incident to divert the anger of the
Buddhist clergy at the recent desecration of the Maha Myatmuni Buddha
image by military intelligence (see Section II).
In 1998 the NCGUB/HRDU published detailed reports that in February 1997,
during an offensive against KNU forces, government soldiers targeted the
Muslim community in Karen State, burned Islamic schools and mosques,
forcibly relocated about 4,000 Muslims from four villages in
Kya-ein-seik-kyi District, and killed two male Muslims in Kyo Ta village
by slitting their throats. The soldiers reportedly destroyed mosques in
six villages and looted a seventh mosque in Dooplaya District. The
NCGUB/HRDU also reported in 1998 that, according to Muslim refugees at a
camp in Thailand, government authorities sometimes did not permit Muslim
refugees living in Karen refugee camps in Thailand to return to Burma
unless they first converted to Buddhism.
During the mid-1960's, the military Government nationalized virtually all
private schools and hospitals, including extensive private educational
and health facilities belonging to or affiliated with Christian
denominations or international missions. These nationalized facilities
continue to make up a very large proportion of the country's inadequate
educational and health care infrastructure. The Government is not known
to have paid any compensation in connection with these extensive
confiscations.
There were no reports of the forced religious conversion of minor U.S.
citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United
States, or of the Government's refusal to allow such citizens to be
returned to the United States.
Section II. Societal Attitudes
There are social tensions between the Buddhist majority and the Christian
and Muslim minorities, due in large part to government preference in
practice (although not in law) both for non-Buddhists during British
colonial rule and for Buddhists since independence.
Even though the Government reportedly contributed to or instigated
anti-Muslim violence in Arakan State in 1991, in Shan State and Rangoon
in 1996, and in cities throughout the country in 1997 (see Section I),
its reported ability to do so repeatedly reflects widespread prejudice
against Muslims, many of whom are ethnic Indians or Bengalis.
Since 1994 when the progovernment Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)
was organized, there has been armed conflict between the DKBA and the
Christian-led Karen National Union. Although the DKBA was formed and has
operated with government support and guidance and reportedly includes
some Christians, and although the KNU is not a specifically Christian
organization and includes many Buddhists, this armed conflict between two
nongovernmental Karen organizations has had strong religious overtones.
During the mid-1990's, when the DKBA captured a village from the KNU, it
was reportedly common DKBA practice to interrogate and release Buddhist
villagers but to torture Christian villagers and kill them if they
refused to convert to Buddhism; a large exodus of Christian Karen to
Thailand accompanied the DKBA's capture of most KNU-controlled areas in
Burma between 1994 and 1997. DKBA treatment of Christians reportedly
improved substantially after the DKBA settled down to administering the
regions it had conquered. Nevertheless, during 1998 DKBA troops in Ler
Doh Township in Karen State reportedly posted signs in front of churches
in the villages of Pah Dta Lah, Hee Po Der, and Mah Bpee, warning that
they would kill anyone attending those churches on Sundays. On March 11,
1998, as part of a campaign by the Government and the DKBA to deprive the
KNU of its civilian base, 200 DKBA troops reportedly attacked a Karen
refugee camp in Thailand, killing 4 persons, injuring 60 persons, and
burning churches and a mosque as well as 1,300 dwellings.
A 1996 incident of lethal violence at a major Buddhist religious shrine
remained unresolved. There continued to be no arrest warrants or
indictments issued in connection with the bombing, on Christmas Day 1996,
of a pagoda in Rangoon at which a relic of the Buddha's tooth, then on
loan from China, was temporarily lodged. The bombing killed 4 persons and
injured 18. No organization is known to have claimed responsibility for
this bombing.
A reported 1997 desecration of a major Buddhist shrine also remained
unresolved. In early March 1997, reports that an ancient and highly
venerated image of the Buddha in Mandalay's Maya Myatmuni Pagoda had been
broken into, and that large rubies enshrined in it had been stolen,
contributed to widespread public protest demonstrations by Buddhist monks
and laypersons demanding an investigation of the incident. Smaller
protests expressing the same demand continued during the period covered
by this report (see Section I). This reported desecration was widely
alleged to have been committed by covert operatives of the security
forces, although this has never been proven; at the time of this reported
desecration, the Government's foreign exchange reserves were critically
low. It has also been alleged but not proven that government internal
security operatives instigated the anti-Muslim riots that occurred
throughout the country in late March and April 1997 in order to divert
Buddhist anger against the Government in connection with this reported
desecration (see Section I). There has been no public judicial inquiry
into this reported desecration.
Section III. U.S. Government Policy
Since 1988 a primary objective of U.S. Government policy towards Burma
has been to promote increased respect for human rights, including the
right to freedom of religion. The U.S. Embassy has promoted religious
freedom in the overall context of its promotion of human rights generally
in numerous contacts with government officials as well as through many
public diplomacy programs. Due to the Government's continued lack of
respect for human rights generally, or to specific aspects thereof, the
U.S. Government has supported actively annual resolutions by United
Nations bodies criticizing that lack of respect, discontinued bilateral
aid to the Government, suspended issuance of licenses to export arms to
Burma, suspended Generalized System of Preferences tariff preference for
imports of Burmese origin, suspended Export-Import Bank financial
services in support of U.S. exports to Burma, not provided any Overseas
Private Investment Organization financial services in support of U.S.
investment in Burma, suspended active promotion of trade with Burma,
suspended issuance of visas to high government officials and their
immediate family members, banned new investment in Burma by U.S. firms,
opposed all assistance to the Government by international financial
institutions, and urged the governments of other countries to take
similar actions. The U.S. Government actively supported the decision of
the International Labor Organization (ILO), in June 1999, to suspend the
Government of Burma from participation in ILO programs, based in part on
an August 1998 ILO Commission of Inquiry report that the Government
systematically used forced labor for a wide range of civilian and
military purposes.
The U.S. Embassy has advocated U.S. policy to the Government (both
informally and through repeated formal demarches), to the public, to
representatives of the Governments of other countries and of
international organizations, to international media representatives, to
scholars, and to representatives of U.S. and international businesses.
Embassy staff have met repeatedly with leaders of Buddhist, Christian,
and Islamic religious groups, members of the faculties of schools of
theology, and other religious-affiliated organizations and NGO's as part
of their reporting and public diplomacy activities.
[End of Document]
For those who would like the pretty version with the Department Seal etc, the
URL is:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/1999/irf_burma99.html
Internet ProLink PC User
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<html>
<font face="Courier New, Courier">US STATE DEPT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 99
(BURMA) <br>
Posted in 2 parts for easier downloading<br>
<br>
Pt II<br>
<br>
In 1998 the NCGUB/HRDU published detailed reports, based largely
on<br>
information provided by Karen and Karenni opposition organizations
based<br>
in Thailand, of burnings of seven Christian churches in Karenni
State and<br>
in the Mergui-Tavoy District of Tenasserim Division by
government<br>
security forces during July and August 1997. Many of these
church<br>
burnings reportedly were accompanied by extrajudicial killings and
other<br>
abuses of noncombatant Christians and the burning of their houses
and<br>
other nonreligious buildings. At the times and in the areas where
these<br>
abuses reportedly were committed, government security forces
were<br>
conducting campaigns aimed at depriving Karen and Karenni
insurgent<br>
forces of their civilian base of support.<br>
<br>
In 1998 the army's LIB 60 reportedly ordered each village tract
(group of<br>
5 to 10 villages) in Ler Doh Township in Karen State to provide 20
women<br>
to become Buddhist nuns at the monastery in Klaw Maw village, where
the<br>
progovernment Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) had a base
camp.<br>
About 40 women, including some who were previously Christians,
reportedly<br>
became Buddhist nuns as a consequence of this order.<br>
<br>
In late May 1999, on the Burma-Thai border near Ban Wangtakian,
Thailand,<br>
Burmese security forces reportedly arrested and detained a
Karen<br>
Christian missionary named Sae and three members of his
family,<br>
ostensibly on suspicion of spying for the Karen National Union
(KNU).<br>
However, Thai border security officials reportedly pointed out that
this<br>
missionary and his family were arrested shortly after KNU
guerillas<br>
seized a government soldier and four progovernment village
chiefs.<br>
<br>
In late November 1998, a major of the army's 7th Tactical
Command<br>
reportedly ordered Catholics in Pekhon Township, Shan State, not
to<br>
conduct any outdoor religious activities involving more than 10
persons.<br>
This order precluded an annual mass pilgrimage to a mountain
cave<br>
believed to be the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. On
December<br>
3, security forces and township authorities prevented more than
15,000<br>
pilgrims from climbing up to worship at the cave; instead,
they<br>
worshipped in a field near Jayrawbalo village.<br>
<br>
Since 1990 government authorities and security forces have
promoted<br>
Buddhism over Christianity among the Chin ethnic minority of the
western<br>
part of the country. Until 1990 the Chin generally practiced
either<br>
Christianity or traditional indigenous religions. The Chin were the
only<br>
major ethnic minority in the country that did not largely support
any<br>
significant armed organization in active rebellion against the
Government<br>
or in an armed cease-fire with the Government. Since 1990
government<br>
authorities and security forces, with assistance from monks of the
Hill<br>
Regions Buddhist Missions, coercively have sought to induce Chins
to<br>
convert to Theravada Buddhism and to prevent Christian Chins
from<br>
proselytizing Chins who practice traditional indigenous religions.
This<br>
campaign, reportedly accompanied by other efforts to
"Burmanize" the<br>
Chin, has involved a large increase in military units stationed in
Chin<br>
State and other predominately Chin areas, state-sponsored
immigration of<br>
Buddhist Burman monks from other regions, and construction of
Buddhist<br>
monasteries and shrines in Chin communities with few or no
Buddhists,<br>
often by means of forced "donations" of money or labor.
Chin opposition<br>
groups emerged in 1988 and subsequently developed into active<br>
insurgencies against the Government.<br>
<br>
According to multiple detailed and credible reports, authorities
and<br>
security forces promoted Buddhism among the Chin in diverse and
often<br>
coercive ways. For example, military units repeatedly located their
camps<br>
on the sites of Christian churches and graveyards, which were
destroyed<br>
to build these camps; local Chin Christians were forced to assist
in<br>
these acts of desecration. Local government officials ordered
Christian<br>
Chins to attend sermons by newly arrived Buddhist monks who
disparaged<br>
Christianity and promised monthly support payments to individuals
and<br>
households that converted to Buddhism. Government soldiers
stationed in<br>
Chin State reportedly were promised and given higher rank and more
pay if<br>
they induced Chin women to marry them and convert to Buddhism.
The<br>
authorities reportedly supplied rice to Buddhists at lower prices
than to<br>
Christians, distributed extra supplies of other foodstuffs such as
sugar<br>
and milk to Buddhists on Sunday mornings while Christians
attended<br>
Church, exempted converts to Buddhism from forced labor, and
conscripted<br>
young Christian males to do forced labor as army porters as they
left<br>
church on Sunday mornings. Soldiers led by officers repeatedly
disrupted<br>
Christian worship services and celebrations. Chin Christians were
forced<br>
to "donate" labor to clean and maintain Buddhist shrines.
Local<br>
government officials separated the children of Chin Christians from
their<br>
parents under false pretenses of giving them free secular education
and<br>
allowing them to practice their own religion, while in fact the
children<br>
were lodged in Buddhist monasteries where they were instructed in
and<br>
converted to Buddhism without their parents' knowledge or
consent.<br>
Authorities reportedly seized and publicly burned Bibles smuggled
in from<br>
India and arrested and detained a Bible smuggler. In Chin State,
the<br>
authorities reportedly subjected Christian sermons to censorship.
An<br>
anonymous printed pamphlet entitled "The Facts to Attack
Christians," a<br>
guide to proselytizing Christians "by means of both violence
and<br>
non-violence," was distributed widely by Buddhist monks of the
Hill<br>
Region Buddhist Missions.<br>
<br>
In 1998 several reports, many based on interviews with refugees,
were<br>
published about government abuses of Chin Christians during
previous<br>
years. Government authorities repeatedly prohibited Christian
clergy from<br>
proselytizing. Soldiers beat Christian clergy who refused to
sign<br>
statements promising to stop preaching. Security forces
arrested,<br>
detained at length, or physically abused Christian clergy who
refused to<br>
stop preaching and who were effective preachers. The Rev. Luai
Thang, a<br>
northern Chin Baptist who began a highly effective mission to the
largely<br>
traditionalist Paletwa township in southern Chin State in
1991,<br>
reportedly was beaten severely by soldiers under the command of
Sgt. Tun<br>
Myint in the village of Pichaungwa in April 1993 while officiating
at a<br>
wedding ceremony. He was found killed by a stab wound in August
1993. On<br>
August 2, 1993, soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Thurah Sein
Win<br>
reportedly cut the mouth of Baptist pastor Zang Kho Let of
Phailen<br>
village in Chin State, an effective preacher, so that he could not
longer<br>
talk, then killed him by beating him while suffocating him with a
plastic<br>
bag over his head. During the 1990's, a relatively large number of
Chin<br>
Christian clergy left the country and claimed refugee status or
political<br>
asylum in other countries.<br>
<br>
In June and July 1996, six Buddhist monks, led by Abbot Badanna
Setta of<br>
the Mindat Hill Region Buddhist Mission, reportedly came to five
villages<br>
in Chin State accompanied by six soldiers under Sgt. Chit Shew from
Light<br>
Infantry Battalion (LIB) 274. In each village, the abbot
reportedly<br>
ordered the immediate and total abolition of Christianity and
Christian<br>
churches. In each village, the monks reportedly demanded that
church<br>
leaders sign pledges to stop preaching, and the soldiers
accompanying<br>
them reportedly beat with gun butts or slashed the faces of
church<br>
leaders who refused to sign in three villages. In one village the
monks<br>
and soldiers reportedly stopped a Christian religious service
at<br>
gunpoint. In another the abbot reportedly ordered the removal of a
cross<br>
from a nearby hilltop. In yet another village, the monks and
soldiers<br>
reportedly forced all villagers to reregister with the local
government<br>
as Buddhists and to exchange their citizens' identity cards
identifying<br>
them as Christians with new citizens' identity cards identifying
them as<br>
Buddhists. There were also reports that in 1998 a Buddhist
missionary<br>
monk in an ethnic Chin area of Sagaing Division beat local
Christians who<br>
refused to renounce Christianity.<br>
<br>
In some other areas inhabited by Chins, the Buddhist missionaries
adopted<br>
somewhat less coercive tactics. Two Buddhist monks accompanied by
2<br>
soldiers from IB 269 who served as their guards reportedly came to
a<br>
307-household village in Matupi township, Chin State, in November
1996.<br>
On July 19, 1997, a nonreligious public holiday, local
authorities<br>
reportedly ordered all villagers to attend a sermon by one of the
monks,<br>
who taught that Jesus was appropriately crucified by the Romans
after<br>
committing many crimes, and offered monthly stipends for converts
to<br>
Buddhism and free education for their children. In January 1997,
three<br>
Buddhist monks reportedly accompanied by a squad of soldiers came
to Te<br>
village in Than Tlang township, Chin State. Local government
authorities<br>
reportedly ordered all residents to attend the monks' sermon, in
which<br>
the monks asked all villagers to convert to Buddhism, and stated
that men<br>
who refused to do so would be taken by the army for forced labor
as<br>
porters, while those who converted would not. On Christmas Day
1996, in<br>
Thing Cang village in Falam Township, Chin State, soldiers
reportedly<br>
broke the teeth of a church elder who asked the second
lieutenant<br>
commanding them to stop the soldiers from disrupting a religious
ceremony<br>
by singing and dancing. The elder reportedly required
hospitalization.<br>
<br>
There reportedly have been instances of forced conversion, where
young<br>
persons from Chin Christian families have been enticed away with
offers<br>
of scholarships and housing and are then allegedly forced to
become<br>
Buddhists.<br>
<br>
In February 1998, 100 soldiers of LIB 266 and IB 50 reportedly
arrested<br>
all Baptist church leaders in Lautu Village Tract in Than Tlang
Township,<br>
Chin State, accused them of supporting Chin National Front
insurgents,<br>
and ordered them to lie down at noon and look directly at the sun
with<br>
their eyes open. The soldiers reportedly beat those who closed
their<br>
eyes. A few days later, military authorities reportedly denied the
prior<br>
request of the Lautu Baptist Churches to hold a conference on
February<br>
22.<br>
<br>
In 1998 the commander of LIB 266, based in Lundler village in Than
Tlang<br>
Township, Chin State, reportedly required elders of seven nearby
villages<br>
to attend a party hosted by the battalion at which alcoholic
beverages<br>
were served and forced the elders to drink alcoholic beverages at
that<br>
party. Most of the village elders, who were Baptists, preferred not
to<br>
drink alcohol for religious reasons; however, their objections were
not<br>
heeded.<br>
<br>
In November 1998, Lt. Col Saw Thum, commanding LIB 528 near Utalin
in<br>
Chin State, reportedly ordered at least nine largely Christian
Chin<br>
villages to contribute money to help pay for a Buddhist pagoda
festival<br>
that they were then required to attend.<br>
<br>
There have been several credible reports of harassment of
Christian<br>
churches and pastors in Chin State and in the Chin community
elsewhere in<br>
connection with the celebration of the l00th year of Christianity
among<br>
the Chin in 1999. On January 5, 1999, after a centennial
celebration held<br>
in the town of Than Tlang on January 1-3, citizens of the town
erected a<br>
cross atop Vuichip Hill outside the town. The township military
commander<br>
reportedly ordered the town's residents to remove the cross, but
they<br>
refused to do so, whereupon soldiers reportedly removed the cross
and<br>
arrested and interrogated six Chin Baptist pastors. In response
the<br>
inhabitants of Than Tlang observed a general strike and day of
prayer on<br>
January 6. The township military command then reportedly summoned
20<br>
Christian clergy and church leaders for interrogation. On January
9,<br>
Christian churches around Hakka, the capital of Chin State, joined
Than<br>
Tlang's protest by holding special prayer services. The regional
military<br>
command then reportedly ordered the postponement, at least until
April,<br>
of a centennial celebration to be held in Hakka, and informed
Chin<br>
Christian leaders that erection of the crosses on hilltops must
be<br>
approved by authorities in Rangoon.<br>
<br>
Since the early 1990's, security forces have torn down or
forced<br>
villagers to tear down crosses that had been erected outside
Chin<br>
Christian villages; these crosses have often been replaced with
pagodas,<br>
sometimes built with forced labor. Many of these crosses had been
erected<br>
in remembrance of former missionaries from the United States. In
1998 a<br>
report emerged that on October 27, 1993, Burmese soldiers had
destroyed<br>
the Johnson Memorial Cross at Tung Tlang Mountain near Hakka, and
that a<br>
Buddhist pagoda had been built on the site on the orders of an
army<br>
colonel. However, in one case authorities allowed a cross removed
from<br>
the top of a hill to be rebuilt on the middle of the hill.<br>
<br>
Starting in the early 1990's and as recently as mid-1999, there
were<br>
unconfirmed reports of arrests, detentions and imprisonments of
Chin<br>
pastors. However, there were no reliable estimates of the number of
Chin<br>
pastors in custody during the period covered by this report.<br>
<br>
There were reports of governmental restrictions on the religious
freedom<br>
of Christians among the Naga ethnic minority in the far northwest
of the<br>
country, a group that is smaller and more remotely located than the
Chin<br>
minority. These reports suggested that the Government sought to
induce<br>
members of the Naga to convert to Buddhism by means similar to
those it<br>
used to convert members of the Chin to Buddhism. However,
reports<br>
concerning the Naga, although credible, are less numerous than
reports<br>
concerning the Chin. Consequently, the status of religious freedom
among<br>
the Naga is more uncertain than that of religious freedom among the
Chin.<br>
<br>
There were no known reports of government violations of religious
freedom<br>
in predominantly Christian Kachin State. Most of Kachin State
was<br>
administered by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), under a
1989<br>
cease-fire arrangement with the Government that allows KIO forces
to<br>
remain armed. By contrast, in the other ethnic minority regions
where<br>
Christianity is practiced widely, i.e., Karen and Chin States,
armed<br>
ethnic groups were engaged actively in hostilities against
the<br>
Government.<br>
<br>
Members of the Muslim Rohingya minority Arakan State, on the
country's<br>
western coast, continued to experience severe legal, economic, and
social<br>
discrimination. The Government denies citizenship status to
most<br>
Rohingyas on the grounds that their ancestors allegedly did not
reside in<br>
the country at the start of British colonial rule, as required by
the<br>
country's highly restrictive citizenship law. In 1991 tens of
thousands<br>
of Rohingya, according to some reports as many as 300,000, fled
from<br>
Arakan State into Bangladesh following anti-Muslim violence
alleged<br>
although not proven to have involved government troops. Many of
the<br>
21,000 Rohingya Muslims remaining in refugee camps in Bangladesh in
1999<br>
have refused to return to Burma because they feared human rights
abuses,<br>
including religious persecution, as well as other government<br>
restrictions. The U.N. High Commission for Refugees reported
that<br>
authorities cooperated in investigating isolated incidents of
renewed<br>
abuse of repatriated citizens. However, returnees complained
of<br>
government restrictions on their ability to travel and to engage
in<br>
economic activity. There were credible reports that Muslims in
Rakhine<br>
State have been compelled to build Buddhist pagodas as part of
the<br>
country's forced labor program.<br>
<br>
There were credible reports that during the spring of 1999
anti-Islamic<br>
booklets were distributed throughout the country through the USDA,
a<br>
government-sponsored mass organization. This report followed
other<br>
reports in recent years of government instigation or toleration
of<br>
violence against Muslims. Some reports suggest that preceding
localized<br>
anti-Muslim violence in June 1996 in Shan State and in October 1996
in<br>
Rangoon, individuals affiliated with military intelligence and
members of<br>
the progovernment National Unity Party (NUP) publicly distributed
to<br>
members of the Buddhist community anonymous anti-Muslim booklets
that<br>
contributed materially to anti-Muslim violence. In the spring of
1997,<br>
anti-Muslim riots occurred in cities throughout the country.
Although<br>
government security forces effectively protected the Muslim
population,<br>
they did not effectively protect businesses owned by Muslims or
Islamic<br>
religious sites; about 40 mosques were destroyed, damaged, or
looted<br>
between mid-March and mid-April. This violence was triggered at
least in<br>
part by the attempted rape of a young Buddhist woman by two Muslim
men in<br>
Mandalay on March 15. However, some Muslim leaders and
opposition<br>
organizations, as well as anonymous leaflets distributed in the
Islamic<br>
community in May 1997, alleged that military intelligence,
including<br>
operatives posing as monks, used this incident to divert the anger
of the<br>
Buddhist clergy at the recent desecration of the Maha Myatmuni
Buddha<br>
image by military intelligence (see Section II).<br>
<br>
In 1998 the NCGUB/HRDU published detailed reports that in February
1997,<br>
during an offensive against KNU forces, government soldiers
targeted the<br>
Muslim community in Karen State, burned Islamic schools and
mosques,<br>
forcibly relocated about 4,000 Muslims from four villages in<br>
Kya-ein-seik-kyi District, and killed two male Muslims in Kyo Ta
village<br>
by slitting their throats. The soldiers reportedly destroyed
mosques in<br>
six villages and looted a seventh mosque in Dooplaya District.
The<br>
NCGUB/HRDU also reported in 1998 that, according to Muslim refugees
at a<br>
camp in Thailand, government authorities sometimes did not permit
Muslim<br>
refugees living in Karen refugee camps in Thailand to return to
Burma<br>
unless they first converted to Buddhism.<br>
<br>
During the mid-1960's, the military Government nationalized
virtually all<br>
private schools and hospitals, including extensive private
educational<br>
and health facilities belonging to or affiliated with
Christian<br>
denominations or international missions. These nationalized
facilities<br>
continue to make up a very large proportion of the country's
inadequate<br>
educational and health care infrastructure. The Government is not
known<br>
to have paid any compensation in connection with these
extensive<br>
confiscations.<br>
<br>
There were no reports of the forced religious conversion of minor
U.S.<br>
citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the
United<br>
States, or of the Government's refusal to allow such citizens to
be<br>
returned to the United States.<br>
<br>
Section II. Societal Attitudes<br>
<br>
There are social tensions between the Buddhist majority and the
Christian<br>
and Muslim minorities, due in large part to government preference
in<br>
practice (although not in law) both for non-Buddhists during
British<br>
colonial rule and for Buddhists since independence.<br>
<br>
Even though the Government reportedly contributed to or
instigated<br>
anti-Muslim violence in Arakan State in 1991, in Shan State and
Rangoon<br>
in 1996, and in cities throughout the country in 1997 (see Section
I),<br>
its reported ability to do so repeatedly reflects widespread
prejudice<br>
against Muslims, many of whom are ethnic Indians or Bengalis.<br>
<br>
Since 1994 when the progovernment Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
(DKBA)<br>
was organized, there has been armed conflict between the DKBA and
the<br>
Christian-led Karen National Union. Although the DKBA was formed
and has<br>
operated with government support and guidance and reportedly
includes<br>
some Christians, and although the KNU is not a specifically
Christian<br>
organization and includes many Buddhists, this armed conflict
between two<br>
nongovernmental Karen organizations has had strong religious
overtones.<br>
During the mid-1990's, when the DKBA captured a village from the
KNU, it<br>
was reportedly common DKBA practice to interrogate and release
Buddhist<br>
villagers but to torture Christian villagers and kill them if
they<br>
refused to convert to Buddhism; a large exodus of Christian Karen
to<br>
Thailand accompanied the DKBA's capture of most KNU-controlled
areas in<br>
Burma between 1994 and 1997. DKBA treatment of Christians
reportedly<br>
improved substantially after the DKBA settled down to administering
the<br>
regions it had conquered. Nevertheless, during 1998 DKBA troops in
Ler<br>
Doh Township in Karen State reportedly posted signs in front of
churches<br>
in the villages of Pah Dta Lah, Hee Po Der, and Mah Bpee, warning
that<br>
they would kill anyone attending those churches on Sundays. On
March 11,<br>
1998, as part of a campaign by the Government and the DKBA to
deprive the<br>
KNU of its civilian base, 200 DKBA troops reportedly attacked a
Karen<br>
refugee camp in Thailand, killing 4 persons, injuring 60 persons,
and<br>
burning churches and a mosque as well as 1,300 dwellings.<br>
<br>
A 1996 incident of lethal violence at a major Buddhist religious
shrine<br>
remained unresolved. There continued to be no arrest warrants
or<br>
indictments issued in connection with the bombing, on Christmas Day
1996,<br>
of a pagoda in Rangoon at which a relic of the Buddha's tooth, then
on<br>
loan from China, was temporarily lodged. The bombing killed 4
persons and<br>
injured 18. No organization is known to have claimed responsibility
for<br>
this bombing.<br>
<br>
A reported 1997 desecration of a major Buddhist shrine also
remained<br>
unresolved. In early March 1997, reports that an ancient and
highly<br>
venerated image of the Buddha in Mandalay's Maya Myatmuni Pagoda
had been<br>
broken into, and that large rubies enshrined in it had been
stolen,<br>
contributed to widespread public protest demonstrations by Buddhist
monks<br>
and laypersons demanding an investigation of the incident.
Smaller<br>
protests expressing the same demand continued during the period
covered<br>
by this report (see Section I). This reported desecration was
widely<br>
alleged to have been committed by covert operatives of the
security<br>
forces, although this has never been proven; at the time of this
reported<br>
desecration, the Government's foreign exchange reserves were
critically<br>
low. It has also been alleged but not proven that government
internal<br>
security operatives instigated the anti-Muslim riots that
occurred<br>
throughout the country in late March and April 1997 in order to
divert<br>
Buddhist anger against the Government in connection with this
reported<br>
desecration (see Section I). There has been no public judicial
inquiry<br>
into this reported desecration.<br>
<br>
Section III. U.S. Government Policy<br>
<br>
Since 1988 a primary objective of U.S. Government policy towards
Burma<br>
has been to promote increased respect for human rights, including
the<br>
right to freedom of religion. The U.S. Embassy has promoted
religious<br>
freedom in the overall context of its promotion of human rights
generally<br>
in numerous contacts with government officials as well as through
many<br>
public diplomacy programs. Due to the Government's continued lack
of<br>
respect for human rights generally, or to specific aspects thereof,
the<br>
U.S. Government has supported actively annual resolutions by
United<br>
Nations bodies criticizing that lack of respect, discontinued
bilateral<br>
aid to the Government, suspended issuance of licenses to export
arms to<br>
Burma, suspended Generalized System of Preferences tariff
preference for<br>
imports of Burmese origin, suspended Export-Import Bank
financial<br>
services in support of U.S. exports to Burma, not provided any
Overseas<br>
Private Investment Organization financial services in support of
U.S.<br>
investment in Burma, suspended active promotion of trade with
Burma,<br>
suspended issuance of visas to high government officials and
their<br>
immediate family members, banned new investment in Burma by U.S.
firms,<br>
opposed all assistance to the Government by international
financial<br>
institutions, and urged the governments of other countries to
take<br>
similar actions. The U.S. Government actively supported the
decision of<br>
the International Labor Organization (ILO), in June 1999, to
suspend the<br>
Government of Burma from participation in ILO programs, based in
part on<br>
an August 1998 ILO Commission of Inquiry report that the
Government<br>
systematically used forced labor for a wide range of civilian
and<br>
military purposes.<br>
<br>
The U.S. Embassy has advocated U.S. policy to the Government
(both<br>
informally and through repeated formal demarches), to the public,
to<br>
representatives of the Governments of other countries and of<br>
international organizations, to international media
representatives, to<br>
scholars, and to representatives of U.S. and international
businesses.<br>
Embassy staff have met repeatedly with leaders of Buddhist,
Christian,<br>
and Islamic religious groups, members of the faculties of schools
of<br>
theology, and other religious-affiliated organizations and NGO's as
part<br>
of their reporting and public diplomacy activities.<br>
<br>
[End of Document]<br>
<br>
</font>For those who would like the pretty version with the Department
Seal etc, the URL is:<br>
<br>
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