A woman is pictured in a file photo praying at St. Anthony Church in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: CNS Benedict Rogers, a human rights campaigner, explained that Burma’s Christian minority is suffering amid the military’s continuing crackdown on protesters opposed to its February coup.
Speaking last Tuesday, Mr Rogers told a webinar at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on September 28 that earlier this month the military killed a Christian pastor, Cung Biak Hum.
“One of the most recent examples of Christian persecution is the murder just 10 days ago, on September 18, of a 31-year-old Baptist pastor in Chin State, Pastor Cung Biak Hum, who was shot dead as he tried to extinguish a blaze of fire after the military had fired artillery that had caused houses to burn,” he said.
“And not only did they kill him, but they chopped off his ring finger in order to take his wedding ring.”
There are approximately 4.4 million Christians in Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country of 54.8 million people bordering Bangladesh, India, China, Laos, and Thailand. There are some 750,000 Catholics in the country, led by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the first Burmese national to receive the red hat.
The Christian legal group ADF International estimates that more than 100,000 Christians living in internal displacement camps in northern Burma are currently denied access to food and healthcare.