Myanmar – December Update 1
Christians hope Pope will speak for them
November 27, 2017 By World Watch Monitor
The Pope landed in Myanmar today to start his six-day visit to Southeast Asia.
Among those welcoming him were more than 7,000 ethnic Kachin from northern Myanmar.
The predominantly Christian Kachin, together with the Karen ethnic minority, live along the country’s borders and have faced years of government oppression.
Myanmar’s Catholic Cardinal Bo said that the “Rohingya situation is a great tragedy but at least 66 churches in Kachin state have been destroyed since the conflict reignited in 2011.”
AP journalist Julhas Alam writes that “Christianity is viewed by many as a colonial belief after the country was ruled by the British for a century until its independence in 1948”.
A human rights activist adds that Myanmar has seen a “rise of religious intolerance, which has come from within society, although there’s evidence that elements of the military-backed political parties are also involved in this.”