(LifeSiteNews) – Since Myanmar’s coup d’état in February 2021, through which the military, or Tatmadaw, seized power and ousted a democratically elected government, the new regime has carried out a reign of terror.

Exploiting the so-called Emergency Clauses of the 2008 military-drafted constitution, the regime has arrested and killed many civilians deemed to be dissidents. Moreover, as reported by the Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the military dictatorship has arrested and detained over 26,893 people across the country as of June 20 this year, though the actual figures are believed to be higher.

In 2023 the junta employed a variety of brutal measures to suppress resistance, including scorched-earth tactics and punitive air strikes. According to figures from Data for Myanmar, the military regime and its allies have razed more than70,000 buildings/structures, including homes, religious sites, and other places of worship, as of December 2023.

As per Irrawaddy, the regime had damaged over 200 religious structures through arson and other forms of attack (including air strikes) across Myanmar by September 2023. Such assaults especially focused on states with a high number of Christians, including Kayah (also called Karenni) and Chin.

Christians represent about 6 percent of the country’s population.

According to the Burma Human Rights Network’s (BHRN) update report in April 2024, the junta forces continue to devastate churches and persecute Christians as they tackle their political rivals. An excerpt of the report, cited from Khit Thit Media, reads:

The junta troops ransacked 400 homes and 5 churches in a raid on a village in Kalay Township in Sagaing Region on 12 April, a local source said. He said East Baptist Church, West Baptist Church, Wesleyan Church, Believer Church and Church of Rock in Pyin Khone Gyi village were destroyed in the attack. The village has a predominantly Christian population.

Another excerpt from the report, quoting news from Mizzima, continues:

The head of the administration of Ha-Kha Township in Chin State has issued an order to close markets and a ban on assembly of more than 5 people, a local source told Mizzima Newspaper. He said the order which will be effective until 20 June would affect mass prayers in Christian churches. He said the move is to indirectly ban the gathering in churches and other religious places. The source said the authorities announced the order in public places using loud hailers.

The Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) has stated that the military has ravaged or partially damaged at least 112 religious properties, including 75 Christian churches and 5 Buddhist monasteries in Myanmar’s Chin State alone. Airstrikes account for the destruction of 19 churches. The military’s security forces have also murdered Chin pastors, mutilating their bodies in some cases, according to a commentary featured in UCA News. The same UCA News article reported:

These attacks on religious buildings serve specific military objectives. They send a powerful signal to all civilians that even in places protected by international humanitarian laws, if they support non-junta groups, they will be targets. Civilians fleeing conflict and taking refuge in churches, monasteries or mosques are thus easy targets for aerial bombings or ground artillery fire. The junta’s infantry units and reinforcement convoys are also using religious buildings for military purposes. Soldiers passing through rural villages and towns in frontline operations often encamp themselves in them. Defectors have testified that religious buildings are chosen because they provide junta soldiers a sense of protection from direct attack by local resistance groups, given their religious affiliations. Before moving on, soldiers often desecrate, vandalize or destroy the church buildings or booby trap the compounds. There are documented instances where pastors have lost limbs in landmine blasts, planted by soldiers.

Another excerpt of the article reads:

The current junta under General Min Aung Hlaing makes no secret of the fact that for him, the army is the sole protector of the Union of Myanmar. In practice, this means the policy of the three Bs: ‘Amyo (nation), batha(individual belief or religion), or one race (Bamar), one language (Burmese) and one religion (Buddhism).’ He has openly invoked religious nationalism to rally support in his quest for political legitimacy. This is no new tactic. Successive regimes have benefited politically from promoting a Buddhist nationalistic agenda and by actively suppressing religious minorities.

According to a 2024 report by International Christian Concern (ICC), the Tatmadaw military epouses an extremist interpretation of Buddhism and thus has “persecuted ethnic and religious minorities with severe campaigns of violence and intimidation.”

READ: Protestant pastor shares powerful testimony of faith after enduring seven years in Chinese prison

Similarly, a separate UCA News report, dated March 2023, asserted that Christians in seven of the nine townships in Chin state are experiencing mounting restrictions on their religious activities, including on Sunday services, with the military implementing a strict 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and a ban on gatherings of over five people.

Additionally, local authorities are reportedly instructing churches to give them the names of priests, lists of churchgoers, and phone numbers of those who participate in church services, UCA News reported.

As an anonymous pastor from Mindat township in southern Chin state told UCA News,“We were asked to inform local authorities about regular churchgoers and also about other gatherings including funeral services.”

The pastor further explained that communities in Mindat were having difficulties communicating as telephone and internet lines were cut off at that time.

Manny Maung, a Myanmar Researcher for the Asia Division at the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in February 2023 that the junta’s martial law permits more repression of “basic rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and association.”

“In essence, these martial law orders all but guarantee that ongoing military abuses remain unchecked and those responsible unaccountable,” Maung stated in remarks cited by UCA News.

Likewise, the Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF) has recorded at least 50 places of worship that have been devastated in Karenni state. As per the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG 2022), at least 20 religious buildings were destroyed in Karen State in the year following the military putsch.

In response to the junta’s repression, Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Bo and his brother bishops have urged for peace and dialogue. For instance, on the eve of the coup anniversary in 2023, Mandalay’s Archbishop Marco Tin Wan, Taunggyi’s Archbishop Basilio Athai, and Cardinal Bo lamented the loss of lives and the fact that “places of worship and monasteries, where communities sought peace and reconciliation are themselves increasingly under attack.”