Release International

The Burmese army is targeting the mostly Christian Chin people with forced labour, arbitrary arrest and even physical assault, according to a major new report.

The report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), entitled We are like forgotten people, found that Christians in Chin state in north-west Burma are subject to systematic bullying and violence to try to force them to become Buddhist. Those who flee, to countries such as India, suffer discrimination and abuse abroad too.

The report, based on interviews with ethic minority Chin in India and Malaysia, documents how Chin Christians in Burma are forced to provide funds and labour to build Buddhist pagodas – and, sometimes, even forced to observe Buddhist rituals. It claims that some Christians have been forcibly conscripted into the army: HRW says some are sent into minefields ahead of the troops. Many have been accused of being insurgents and tortured.

The US State Department reports that Chin state authorities have not granted permission to build a new church since 2003. Some 90 per cent of the Chin population are Christian.

(Sources: Compass Direct, Human Rights Watch, The Voice of the Martyrs USA)

Ask God to build the faith of Christians in Chin state in Burma.

Continue to pray for reform in Burma that will bring in greater religious freedom.

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