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Statement of Christian Chins in Del



Subject: Statement of Christian Chins in Delhi, India

STATEMENT OF PROTEST AGAINST RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS
IN CHIN STATE, BURMA.

We, Christian Chins based in Delhi, stage silent protest against the 
military regime in Burma for its religious persecutions upon the Christian 
Chin in the Chin State.

The regime arrested two pastors, Rev. Biak Kam of Thantlang Baptist Church 
and Rev. Thawng Kam, General Secretary of the Thantlang Association of 
Baptist Churches (TABC) on the night of September 7, 1999 the day on which 
US Department of State issued the 1999 Annual Report on International 
Religious Freedom that took particular note of abuses against the Christian 
Chin.

The arrested pastors had called a meeting as to how to negotiate with the 
military authorities, in charge of the area, and to make request for release 
of headmen of 12 villages and three block chairmen of Thantlang Town who 
were made responsible, by the battalion, for defection of a soldier of a 
unit of the No. 266 Light Infantry Battalion led by Lt. Myo Kyaw.

Rev. Biak Kam and Rev. Thawng Kam  were accused of calling a meeting
without their knowledge or permission. This is one of the many incidents of 
religious persecutions in the state.

Following the brutal crack-down of the popular uprising and seizure of the 
power in 1988, the military regime systematically put efforts to induce 
members of the Christian Chins who constitute more than ninety percent of 
the population of the state and prevent them from practising their belief 
by:

1) destroying the crosses erected at the prayer places and forcibly making 
Christians build pagodas at these places,

2) confiscating  lands owned by churches and building Buddhist temples at 
these places,

3) duping poor Christian parents and take their children to urban areas for 
education but instead making them wear yellow rope and learn Buddhism, by 
coercive mean,

4) arresting, detaining, interrogating and physically abusing pastors and 
evangelists, and religiously selective exempting from forced labour and 
'donations'.

5) preventing evangelists from delivering sermons unless these are
translated into Burmese and submit them in advance to local security forces 
and get permission to preach,

6) preventing Christians from and, in some cases, disturbing holding of 
religious gatherings, and

7) intentionally forcing the Christians to carry ammunitions and rations of 
security forces and making them work as forced labours, even on Sundays.

We strongly demand that the State Peace and Development Council ( SPDC):

1) respect religious freedom in Chin State and other religious minority 
areas,

2) stop arresting, detaining and physically abusing Christian clergy,

3) unconditionally release the pastors and all the village headmen and
block chairmen,

4) withdraw security forces from the Chin State


Dated the 28th September, 1999
Christian Chins based in Delhi
New Delhi

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