2013-01-21 16:13:13

Myanmar’s Church leaders make rare call for peace


January 21, 2013 - Catholic and Protestant leaders in Myanmar last week issued a rare statement calling for an end to the conflict in northern Kachin state where casualties among civilians continues to grow. Bishop John Hsane Hgyi of Pathei , president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, and Yin Yin Maw, president of the Myanmar Council of Churches (MCC), on Thursday urged an end to recent aerial bombing and artillery fire by government forces and called for international monitors to be permitted access. “All parties’ concerned [should] return to the negotiating table with the help of neutral facilitators, if required. Peace is possible,” the joint statement read. Church leaders in Myanmar, formerly Burma, rarely speak out on the country’s many insurgency conflicts for fear of retribution from a regime which, until recently, demonstrated a low tolerance for dissent of any kind. “We should have made our voice heard earlier by issuing a number of appeal letters,” said Bishop Sumlut Gam from Banmaw diocese in Kachin State. “Quite frankly, it’s a late response now.” However, MCC general secretary Shwe Lin said the timing of the statement by Christian groups was to make sure that the right message was delivered after careful consideration. The onslaught by government troops against ethnic rebel positions in Kachin has been particularly intense in recent weeks. Even as the United Nations commended President Thein Sein issuing a ceasefire order on Friday, government troops were reported attacking rebel positions. The twenty months of fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people and, for some analysts, raised doubts about the sincerity of all the political and economic reforms pursued by the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The government this month admitted for the first time that it was carrying out air strikes. New York-based Human Rights Watch last week accused the army of indiscriminately shelling the region.







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