The Pope's plea was revealed in a conversation with Jesuits during his trip to Southeast Asia from September 2 to 13. The Italian daily Corriere della Sera published excerpts from these talks on September 24.

"I asked for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and I met her son in Rome. I have proposed to the Vatican to give her shelter on our territory" the report says quoting Pope Francis.

Suu Kyi's Detention and Health Concerns

Aung San Suu Kyi, 78, has been held in custody since the Myanmar military's 2021 coup, which ended a decade of democratic governance in the country.

She is currently serving a 27-year sentence on charges ranging from corruption to violating COVID-19 restrictions.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been kept largely out of public view, sparking concerns over her well-being.

Local reports have also suggested that her health is deteriorating, though officials have provided little information on her condition.

Pope calls for action in Myanmar

Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, spoke out against the ongoing violence in the country.

"We cannot stay silent about the situation in Myanmar today. We must do something!" he said during his conversation with Jesuits.

He also emphasised the need for peace and democracy in the nation.

"The future of your country should be one of peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of everyone and respect for a democratic system that enables everyone to contribute to the common good" Francis added.

Executions condemned by human rights groups

As Myanmar's military junta continues its crackdown on opposition, the regime recently executed two pro-democracy activists, Maung Kaung Htet and Chan Myae Thu, for their involvement in a prison bombing in Yangon.

According to the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Myae Thu became the first woman executed since the coup.

"Words of condemnation are no longer sufficient, concrete action is much needed to end the culture of impunity under which the junta operates" said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, executive director of FORUM-ASIA.

"Death sentences and executions are not only a punitive response to legitimate resistance but also serve to crush all dissent through terror and fear" Bacalso added.

Sources

• La Croix International
• UCANews.com
• CathNews NZ

"People have experienced more anxiety," the bank officer said, referring to the country's economic situation.

"We have restricted the amount of daily withdrawal — as any bank does not have enough cash for massive withdrawal — to prevent the collapse of banks," he said, speaking anonymously for security reasons.

Yangon residents, who also asked to remain anonymous for security, told RFA that restrictions began at the start of this week.

Read More

Church sources say two men opened fire on 40-year-old Father Paul Khwi Shane Aung during the early morning service.

"They were wearing black clothes and masks and entered the church on a motorcycle to shoot the priest three times" the sources say.

Just why the priest was shot is not yet known.

A church spokesperson says Aung has been moved from the local hospital to Myitkyina, the state capital.

Church leaders criticised

The attack that saw the Catholic priest shot is one of several violent incidents involving clergy, pastors and religious institutions in Myanmar.

The military is targeting them for supporting rebels after the toppling of Myanmar's civilian government in February 2021.

Dr Hkalam Samson, a prominent Kachin Baptist Convention pastor, was arrested in December 2022 for his alleged links with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The KIA is an ethnic rebel group.

Samson was sentenced to six years jail in April last year.

Last month, a 47-year-old pastor from the Kachin Baptist Convention was shot dead at his computer shop. His killers are still at large.

More conflict likely

An activist based in Kachin state says anti-social elements are fomenting religious and ethnic conflict.

The civil war in Myanmar's military-rule regime has entered a critical phase the activist says.

He notes the past six weeks have seen the KIA's seizure of several key military bases and outposts.

Lwalje, a key trade town near the Chinese border, is under the rebel group's control.

"We need to be vigilant. The [shooting] incidents show warning signs" the activist says.

Kachin state's 1.7 million people are mainly Christians. Around 116,000 are Catholics.

Source

• UCA News

A new report from the agency says the landmine and explosive legacy in Myanmar (formerly Burma) killed or maimed at least 210 children last year.

Those children represent over 20 percent of last year's 1,052 civilian casualties in the conflict-torn Southeast Asian nation.

UNICEF's 3 April report says the number of people injured in landmines and explosive ordnances in Myanmar tripled last year, compared with the 390 people who died from their use in 2022.

The report - released on the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance - says in 599 explosions last year 188 people were killed. A further 864 were maimed.

Children most vulnerable

UNICEF says children are particularly vulnerable to landmines. That's because they are less likely to recognise them and may be unaware of their dangers.

The use of explosive weapons is widespread in the country, which means children can encounter landmines practically anywhere. They have been placed near their homes, schools, playgrounds and farming areas UNICEF says.

"The use of landmines is not only reprehensible but can constitute a violation of international humanitarian law," UNICEF's Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific says.

"It is imperative that all parties to the conflict prioritise the safety and well-being of civilians, particularly children, and take immediate steps to halt the use of these indiscriminate weapons."

Mines everywhere

UNICEFs report says apart from Myanmar's capital city Naypyitaw, most of the country's states and regions are ridden with landmines.

UNICEF says landmine and explosive use has increased as the conflict has expanded in recent months.

Myanmar is among 32 countries that have not signed the 1999 UN convention banning anti-personnel mines.

Civil war

The Myanmar civil war - aka the Burmese Spring Revolution, the Burmese civil war or the people's defensive war - is fierce and ongoing.

It followed the country's long-running insurgencies. These escalated significantly after a military coup d'état in 2021 and the military junta's subsequent violent crackdown on anti-coup protests.

Key players in the civil war are the military and ethnic armed groups and the newly emerged People's Defence Forces.

Catholic help

The Catholic Church has been supporting victims of landmines in Shan state, a Catholic social worker says.

"We have a programme on cash support to the victims of landmines when cases are referred to us by the NGOs and civil society groups."

He says the people they helped support last year were both adults and children.

War crimes

In July 2022, Amnesty International accused the Myanmar military of committing war crimes.

The military has been manufacturing and laying landmines on a massive scale in and around villages and near churches.

These include the M-14, which typically blows off the victim's foot at the ankle.

There's also the more powerful MM-2, which often blows off the victim's leg at the knee and causes injuries to other parts of the body.

There is a severe risk of death due to blood loss from the injuries caused by the MM-2, Amnesty says.

Source

• UCA News

Bishop Celso Ba Shwe of Loikaw and clergy members, alongside a congregation of worshippers, found themselves displaced from Christ the King Cathedral in Loikaw due to the intrusion.

"It's sorrowful to learn about the occupation of the junta troops in the cathedral complex. I feel broken as our holy place will be desecrated" Katherine Mu, a resident of Loikaw diocese, told UCA News.

The takeover occurred a day after the feast of Christ the King, which used to draw thousands of people annually.

However this year was a low-key event, with Bishop Shwe leading a Mass at the Bishop's House. The bishop led prayers for peace amidst mounting tensions.

Despite escalating conflict and a population exodus spurred by air strikes and artillery attacks on Karenni rebel forces in Kayah state, Bishop Shwe, clergy, and nearly 50 others remained within the cathedral compound.

Soldiers first entered the cathedral complex on November 26 but left following complaints by Church officials.

However, they stormed the complex the next day and took control of it.

"On the evening of November 26, at least five shells fired by junta forces hit the compound. But there were no casualties" said a Church source.

This conflict in Kayah state is a continuation of the military's actions since November 2021. It has been marked by raids on the Bishop's House, Church premises and a clinic, resulting in the arrest of healthcare workers after the military coup earlier that year.

Amidst the escalating violence, aid groups estimate approximately 250,000 displaced persons in 200 camps across Kayah state, with many finding shelter in Church-operated facilities.

The conflict has forced the abandonment of numerous parishes, with churches and convents bearing the brunt of airstrikes and shelling.

Sources

UCA News

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

The striking doctors joined other government workers in what has come to be known as a nationwide "Civil Disobedience Movement," or CDM, refusing to do their jobs to take a stand against the military government that took power in a February 2021 coup.

A doctor who has been in hiding for more than a year after the junta issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of "incitement" told RFA that she and others on the list have no intention of ending their commitment to the anti-coup movement, regardless of the suspension of their licenses.

Read More

The New Zealand priest has just returned from the Myanmar-Thai border.

Landmines surround a Catholic church in Myanmar. Before mining it, the military had been using the church as a kitchen.

The military junta's mining of the Mother of God church in Mobye, a town in southern Shan state, came after occupying the church for several days while they conducted air strikes and used heavy weapons to destroy over 100 homes and displace over 5,000 people.

The military recently retreated from the church; parishioners were urged not to go near the church building.

Landmines "no surprise" says local priest

Bird says he is sadly no longer surprised by the actions of the Myanmar military.

"I think one of their military tactics is to keep people afraid. They do anything that creates terror and uncertainty," Bird told CathNews.

"The disruption of normal life means that they are in control.

"So laying landmines, limiting travel, constant surveillance and stopping on roads are tactics to keep people afraid."

Bird says religious sisters have told him that to stay alive, they hide in the toilet at night. It's their only option: the military fire into the windows if a light is on and the toilet is the only place without a window.

The reason: the military doesn't want people moving around at night. "It's all part of living under constant fear," Bird says

He says the military is not just targeting religious women.

Recently he spoke with a young man chased by the military with a view to capturing him. He fled from Myanmar across the border.

The military has fixed ideas about who to target, Bird says.

Take people on motorbikes, for instance. The military rule in the community is that it's permissible for 'a man and a woman to be on a motorbike.' Two men on a motorbike, however could be part of the resistance. They risk being shot.

"Every day is a fearful experience," Bird says.

Calling the experience soul-destroying, he says young talented people are losing hope for their lives and their futures.

Access to the internet in Myanmar is intermittent, although it is more regular than formerly, Bird says.

He's accusing the military of providing the internet with the hope of catching and imprisoning people.

"Every time you get stopped on the road or in the village or in the towns on the street, the military ask people for their phones, which they then search.

"So the common practice before going out every day is to delete all the social media platforms because that'll be the first thing that military check."

Turning on the internet is a way of making young people fearful and afraid, he says. It's a very tangible reminder not to join the resistance and not connect with each other and any resistance group.

Bird is a member of the Marist Asia Foundation team that works on the Thai-Myanmar border, supporting Myanmar migrants through education, health and pastoral care.

Sources

• Interview
• UCANews.com

That's how long it is since the junta overthrew Myanmar's democratically elected government.

Domestic research group Data for Myanmar says troops had torched 28,434 houses since the military seized power on 1 February 2021.

This year in May and June alone, at least 500 homes in historic Catholic villages like Chan Thar and Chaung Yoe in the Sagaing region were set ablaze during junta raids.

In Chin state's Thantlang town, hundreds of homes and several churches including Catholic ones were burned down by junta troops between last September and June this year, Church sources and rights groups say.

Various religious leaders, including Catholic bishops in Myanmar and Pope Francis, have called for the protection of places of worship, hospitals and schools and respect for human life in Myanmar. Their calls have been ignored.

Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay Archdiocese, which covers the Sagaing region, had called for human dignity and civilian property to be respected amid the junta attacks in several villages in the region. His calls have also been ignored.

In the Sagaing region alone, 20,153 houses have been destroyed. In the Magway region 5,418 houses have been torched. Both regions are Bamar-Buddhist majority areas in central Myanmar.

The predominantly Christian Chin state in the country's western region has seen 1,474 houses burnt, while another 1,389 have been destroyed elsewhere.

All three regions are hotbeds of civilian resistance to the armed People's Defence Forces military rule.

Villagers from those regions have witnessed fierce attacks. These include air strikes, heavy artillery and indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

Civilian homes and property in the Kachin, Kayah and Mon regions, southern Shan state and in Bago, Tanintharyi and Mandalay regions have also been targeted.

Thousands of people have been left internally displaced.

Noeleen Heyzer, the United Nation's special envoy on Myanmar, visited the Southeast Asian nation last month.

During the visit she told Myanmar's military leadership not to burn down villages and civilian properties.

The junta leaders denied committing arson however. Instead, they claimed they were trying to protect civilians.

Their forces have chosen not to adhere to international laws or war ethics.

The military junta's bloody crackdown against the People's Defence Forces shows no sign of abating. So far over 2,200 people have died.

Source

• UCA News

"Real power, as Pope Francis often cited, comes from service. Not imposing power on the innocents," the Myanmar cardinal said recently in a homily.

"For any government, in any just country, the government is not above the people.

"The government is one eye, the people the other eye. Two eyes and one vision.

"A nation built on justice. Anything else is idolatry."

The cardinal mourns Mynmar, which was born with the great dream of peace and prosperity for all.

"Yet powerful people diluted this ideal. Created their own idols: power, possessions, extreme wealth at any cost, economic injustice, environmental injustice," he said.

"For the last seven decades, idol worshippers have robbed the ideal of a nation built on peace and prosperity for all.

"A dream became a nightmare."

Bo also spoke of the agony of the 1000-plus civilian deaths in the coup-hit country during the last six months.

"We have seen the selfish interests of a few, seeking the bread that perishes, [... robbing] millions of their bread of peace, their bread of life, their bread of prosperity."

His comments highlight the background of turmoil besetting Myanmar since Aung San Suu Kyi's administration was ousted in a February coup. Her removal has sparked huge pro-democracy protests and a bloody military crackdown.

Last Friday a Myanmar shadow government began working to overthrow the junta by launching a daily radio programme; first steps seeking to battle military-backed media for supremacy over the airwaves.

The twice-daily 30-minute radio programme went on air providing Covid-19 updates, details of alleged military atrocities and reading out letters from democracy supporters.

Another section was dedicated to local self-defence forces that have sprung up across Myanmar to battle junta forces — often using hunting rifles or weapons manufactured at makeshift jungle factories.

Security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians since the February putsch, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

Source:

• UCANews

Myanmar, once known as Burma, spiralled into violence when military forces took over the country on Feb. 1, interrupting the democratic process set in motion by its previous state counsellor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Democratic protests have sparked all over the country, with some Catholics taking centre stage in opposing the violence of the armed forces. Almost 1,000 people have reportedly been killed in Myanmar since the military coup and many more have been displaced by raids and airstrikes.

"Every dictatorship must find someone to oppress. So we always have a target on our back," said the Rev. Maurice Moe Aung of the Missionaries of Faith, speaking online from Myanmar with a pool of Vatican journalists.

"Probably, if this difficult situation continues and as it's already happening in Buddhist monasteries, the military forces will also enter Catholic churches to control the situation," he added.

Aung said protests continue all over the country, with many arrests putting further pressure on a population already struggling due to the pandemic and a crumbling economy. According to the missionary, time is running out for the international community to intervene and prevent further bloodshed in Myanmar.

"The international community must lend its voice. It must be stronger and more determined. We cannot wait!" Aung said, adding that Southeast Asia has had its share of turmoil since the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the war in Vietnam and the Japanese invasions.

"Now it's up to Myanmar," he said, "so we must act quickly or there will be many, many more deaths."

The United Nations has already intervened by asking for an immediate halt to the violence and restoration of the democratic process. Pope Francis and the local Catholic bishops have also been outspoken in promoting reconciliation in the country.

The pope made his first appeal shortly after the coup, offering his prayer for leaders in the country so they may strive toward "the common good, promoting social justice and national stability, for a harmonious, democratic coexistence."

Since then, Francis has often mentioned his closeness to the people of Myanmar, in particular its young people and clergy.

Christians represent roughly 5% of the country's population, which is 89% Buddhist, followed by a Muslim minority. Its Catholic population is spread over 16 dioceses, and Francis appointed the first red hat in Myanmar to Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.

Catholics have supported the peaceful protests and urged the military to adopt nonviolent measures and dialogue. In a public statement on Feb. 21, the bishops' conference in Myanmar joined other religious leaders in "pleading for restraint in the streets and a return to dialogue."

"The heartrending scenes of youth dying in the streets wound the conscience of a nation," they wrote.

"Let not its sacred ground be soaked in fraternal blood.

"The sadness of parents burying their children has to stop.

"Mothers' tears are never a blessing to any nation."

Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng of Myitkyina, the capital of the most northern region of Myanmar, made headlines in late February when she knelt before the armed forces to protect protesters, a gesture praised both by Bo and Pope Francis.

"I too kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say: Stop the violence! I too reach out my arms and say: May dialogue prevail!" the pope said during his general audience March 17.

Pope Francis visited Myanmar for three days in 2017, where he made appeals for peace and interreligious dialogue. The visit left a permanent mark in the country's society, Aung said, and "a source of celebration for interreligious dialogue in the country and a key for religious and social tolerance."

"His presence was important because we are viewed as the religion of the foreigners and we weren't welcomed even by the Buddhists," he added.

Things changed after the pope's apostolic visit, he said, but the military coup has put a halt to progress in the country and limited the activities of religious groups.

Pope Francis' celebration of Mass on Sunday is the latest effort from the Vatican to draw global attention to the growing tensions in Myanmar.

Starting in late 2016, the Myanmar military began a violent crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority in the country.

According to the United Nations, over 25,000 Rohingya have died as of 2018 in what it described as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

When Pope Francis visited the country he was asked by Bo not to mention the word Rohingya, Aung said, "given the delicacy of the situation which could have affected the entire Catholic community."

The pope refrained from using the term in Myanmar but addressed the matter directly during the second leg of his trip.

"In the name of everyone, of those who have persecuted you, of those who have done you harm, above all for the indifference of the world, I ask forgiveness," the pope said in a meeting with Rohingya refugees in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Dec.1.

"The situation of the Rohingya has remained the same," Aung said. "They are trying to get them out of the country," he added, noting that the conflict is rooted in the animosity between the local Buddhist and Muslim communities.

Looming over the situation in Myanmar is China, which has several vested economic interests in the country and has been accused of backing the military junta. In April, Bo released a statement accusing the Chinese Communist Party of covering up the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is the repression, the lies and the corruption of the CCP that are responsible," he said. The cardinal also openly condemned the CCP's "campaign against religion," which has led to the destruction of religious sites and "the incarceration of at least 1 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps."

This was the first and only time the cardinal openly criticized China, Aung said. "After all, we promote nonviolence. We don't have much more say than that."

Pope Francis and the Vatican have been wary of openly criticizing China, the home of roughly 12 million Catholics. The Vatican has brokered a provisional deal with Beijing regulating the appointment of bishops, which detractors believe will put a muzzle on the pope's ability to hold China accountable.

• Claire Giangravé is an author at Religion News Service.
• Republished with permission.

Unfortunately, this brutal reaction is only the latest in a series of repressive moves across Southeast Asia in recent years as political groups, backed by powerful militaries, intervene in government.

Such dictatorships have arrested the growth of participatory democracies in countries close to Myanmar, including Thailand and Cambodia.

The enduring authoritarian governments in Laos and Vietnam do nothing to enhance democracy or respect for human rights, while nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are fragile democracies.

The semi-democracy that had prevailed in Myanmar since the military began to share power in 2015 came to an abrupt end with the coup.

The military's willingness in 2015 to ease its tight controls on the people of Myanmar was in sharp contrast to its performance since it seized power in a 1962 coup.

Under the leadership of General Ne Win, Myanmar (then called Burma) endured 26 years of military rule. In 1988, nationwide protests broke out but were ruthlessly suppressed as hundreds were killed and jailed.

The actions of the Tatmadaw have provoked widespread condemnation from the international community.

Economic sanctions have followed from countries in Europe and Asia, but unfortunately, those restrictions on trade and income do not necessarily mean trouble for the coup masters who have their own industries, wealth and resources.

In fact, the sanctions imposed on the country - trade embargos, freezing assets, blocks on tourism and student travel, for example - will greatly impact the blameless poor and middle class.

Pope appeals for dialogue

As security forces in Myanmar have increased their crackdown on civilians, with disappearances, detentions and the killing of peaceful protestors, Pope Francis appealed for an end to violence and the start of dialogue.

"Once again, and with much sorrow, I feel compelled to mention the tragic situation in Myanmar, where so many people, especially young people, are losing their lives for offering hope to their country," the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience on March 17.

The spectre of authoritarian rule shadowed the pope's visit to Myanmar in November 2017. Every effort was made by the papal mission to work in unison with the local Church.

Catholics make up a very small minority in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, and making a move deemed to be "wrong" by the Tatmadaw would have meant considerable trouble for the majority, ethnic Bamar Catholics, though most belong to ethnic minorities.

Pope Francis was extremely aware of the trouble the Rohingya minority were in at the time of his visit. But he reserved any expression of that concern to his time in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees had fled after brutal treatment by the Tatmadaw.

In 2021, life in Myanmar has got worse for many more than the Rohingya.

Without mentioning her name, the pope recalled the iconic gestures of Sister Ann Rosa Nu Tawng in a street in the city of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State.

This nun made world headlines when photographs were published of her kneeling before police and extending her arms while begging police not to shoot or hurt protesters. "I, too, kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say, ‘Stop the violence,'"

Pope Francis said. "I, too, spread wide my arms and say, ‘Make way for dialogue.'"

It was the fourth time the pope had spoken about the crisis unfolding in Myanmar.

"Bloodshed resolves nothing," he said, repeating his call for dialogue to begin.

Nuns have played a significant role in the nationwide anti-coup protests by marching in the streets, praying at convents and standing before churches to express their solidarity with the people of Myanmar.

In early February, the sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition reached out to protesters and offered them drinks and snacks. They also visited the families of two Buddhists killed by security forces in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city where, to console them and pray for the departed souls.

Nuns from various congregations have joined laypeople and seminarians to march in the streets for a peaceful solution to the crisis by reciting the rosary and singing gospel songs in Yangon, Mandalay and Loikaw.

On March 6, nuns from the Sisters of Charity congregation reached out to six families in Monywa in central Myanmar to pray for the deceased and provide rice and cooking oil.

Cardinal Bo leads the Catholic response

Catholic responses in Myanmar have been led by Cardinal Charles Bo, the archbishop of Yangon and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

In a March 14 open letter to all the people of the nation, including jailed civilian leaders and the military, he wrote:

"As the leaders of the Myanmar Catholic Church [we bishops] urge all parties in Myanmar to seek peace. This crisis will not be resolved by bloodshed. The killings must stop at once. So many have perished.

The blood spilt is not the blood of an enemy. It is the blood of our own sisters and brothers, our own citizens."

His letter wanted to put a stop to the rising number of dead among the protesters.

The protesters are demanding the military release their elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which scored its second landslide victory in the November 2020 elections. She and many elected leaders are being detained in unknown locations.

Suu Kyi is facing several charges that her supporters say have been fabricated.

On March 11, Suu Kyi was accused of accepting illegal payments worth US$600,000 as well as gold while she was in government. She had already been charged with illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and flouting Covid-19 restrictions.

The military junta, ‘a murderous, illegal regime'

The United Nations, human rights groups, bishops and Catholic organizations have condemned the brutal military crackdown in Myanmar.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council on March 11, rights envoy Tom Andrews said that "Myanmar was currently being controlled by a murderous, illegal regime."

He said the junta's security forces were committing acts of murder, imprisonment, persecution, torture and reclusion as part of a coordinated campaign in a widespread and systematic manner with the knowledge of the junta's leadership that is "likely committing crimes against humanity."

Andrews called for a united global response as "the people of Myanmar need not only words of support but supportive action. They need the help of the international community now."

He said the UN Security Council's statement on March 10 that expressed deep concern about developments in Myanmar was welcome but "wholly insufficient."

He urged member states to commit to taking strong, decisive and coordinated action as a coalition of nations — an emergency coalition for the people of Myanmar.

Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN special envoy on Myanmar, condemned the continued bloodshed as the military defied international calls, including from the UN Security Council, for restraint, dialogue and full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

"The ongoing brutality, including against medical personnel and destruction of public infrastructure, severely undermines any prospects for peace and stability," she said in a statement on March 14.

"The international community, including regional actors, must come together in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations." She said she had heard from contacts in Myanmar heartbreaking accounts of killings, mistreatment of demonstrators and torture of prisoners.

A team of UN investigators appealed for people to collect documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military to build cases against its leaders.

Catholics feel Myanmar's pain

Showing more unity in their opposition to the coup than ASEAN, the regional grouping of southeast Asian nations, the Catholic Church has rallied strongly to the support of people of Myanmar.

SIGNIS, Pax Christi International and the Focolare movement released a joint statement on March 15 that voiced solidarity with Myanmar's citizens.

They said they had heard the message of the people of Myanmar stating that "this coup is essentially about overthrowing them, their will."

"We deplore the extreme authoritarianism that saw fit to trample on the nation's constitution, which in fact permitted limited democracy while maintaining much of the armed forces' power," said the statement.

"It is ultimately not about removing political opponents or supposed public order. It undoes years of patient work for the fundamental rights of citizens and crushes tenuous dreams of a free, democratic country."

The three groups joined the United Nations and other human rights organizations in calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other detained Myanmar officials and leaders.

They asked the military to stop using violence and arbitrarily detaining peaceful protesters and journalists.

They called for justice and accountability for the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities as well as prevention of such crimes and abuses in the future.

The response of the Asian Churches

South Korean bishops have raised deep concerns about Myanmar's brutal response to peaceful protesters as they called for freedom, democracy and peace.

"We learned from history that the normal and innocent people's appeals and solidarity could open a door to a new world," the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea said in a March 11 statement.

It said, in the past South Korea also went through the pain and suffering that Myanmar is now experiencing.

Cardinal Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul wrote to Myanmar's Cardinal Bo and expressed concern about the ruthless military actions.

"I strongly support the people of Myanmar and their desire for democracy, and I truly hope that they will get it back very soon," he wrote.

"Please know that all the clergy, religious and faithful of the Archdiocese of Seoul are sincerely praying for true democracy to be restored in the country."

In a rare gesture, Myanmar's most powerful Buddhist monks' association called on the junta to end violence against protesters and pursue dialogue.

Buddhist monks have played a leading role against military dictatorship as they led the 2007 uprising known as the Saffron Revolution, which was suppressed by a violent crackdown.

Myanmar's acting vice-president Mahn Win Khaing Than has called for a revolution against military dictatorship as this was "the darkest moment of the nation."

The ethnic Karen civilian leader, who is in hiding, was charged with high treason by the junta on March 17.

Where to from here?

Having lost its leader, Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi, Myanmar faces dark days.

Half-developed democratic processes and economic reforms mean the country is poorly placed to weather this storm.

There will be little investment in the country apart from considerable Chinese interest in its resources and other opportunities. But what is worse is that Myanmar will return to the status of an untrustworthy and poor state that it thought it had escaped with the process leading to participatory democracy.

But as that happens, the legacy of British times will reassert itself.

Myanmar is a country of 135 ethnic groups and borders and divisions, as they are in India, are artificial. And the wars between the military and financially and militarily well-resourced ethnic armies will shape domestic politics and deprive the country of opportunities for development.

As broad and popular dissatisfaction with the rule of the Tatmadaw increases the opportunities for conflict and division will only grow.

The range of predictable problems of long gestation suggests that unless a leader of broad popular appeal like Suu Kyi emerges, Myanmar is in for a long wait until things get better.

However, it would be a mistake to think that the forces guiding the Tatmadaw to execute the February 1 coup are the only guiding spirits in that dark organization. For at least five years, some better interpreters of Myanmar's spirit have guided the country and they are still there in the army.

Moreover, and at a much more pragmatic level, many in the army have assets and investments that need a stable economy to thrive and for these wealthy generals to get returns on their investments.

There will be many in Myanmar's military and business elites (and the two overlap) that will not endorse a return to the no-win situation for the country that prevailed from 1962.

That was the military dictatorship of General Ne Win.

A return to that context will not be appealing to the military who saw things getting better for them.

In a recent interview [3] Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for the Holy See's Relations with States declared:

"I don't think the coup will be reversed. Unfortunately, the policy of the generals will prevail in suppressing opposition to what they have done. Sadly, that's how I see it."

He also drew attention to "the context in which it is all taking place" and added that this is "a region of other authoritarian governments as well, so it is not as if they are getting denounced by their neighbours.

I think that unfortunately, the generals will not go back, and maybe international sanctions will have some impact but the generals have chosen their course, and I don't think that will be changed."

• John Zaw and Michael Kelly SJ
• First published DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 5, no. 5 art. 1, 0521: 10.32009/22072446.0521.1 Republished with permission.

Why move against civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, when she had gone along with so much of their program, even defending their campaign against the Rohingya Muslims?

And what explains such a defence on the part of Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner celebrated for standing up for democracy and universal human rights?

Our frame of reference is that military rule is autocratic and therefore bad and that those opposed to it are democratic and therefore good. That's hopelessly simplistic when it comes to the country formerly known as Burma.

What we fail to appreciate is the degree to which Burmese Buddhism has over many centuries nurtured a very different conception of good versus bad government. I've learned better from anthropologist Ingrid Jordt, an expert on religion and politics in Myanmar who teaches at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

In brilliant articles on the 2007 revolt against military rule and the anti-Rohingya campaign of the 2010s, Jordt explains the dynamic interplay of religion and political power in traditional Burmese statecraft and how this has functioned in recent times.

Briefly, Burmese Buddhism understands political legitimacy as derived from a species of spiritual potency called hpoun. The source of hpoun is the monastic order, or sangha, which acquires it by renouncing power and forswearing worldly things.

Political leaders, like everyone else outside the sangha, obtain hpoun through their support of the sangha, emblemized by placing of food in the monks' begging bowls. In this system of what Jordt calls "karmic kingship" (the title of her forthcoming book), hpoun is what differentiates a good (legitimate) ruler from a bad (illegitimate) one.

Although monks are required to be apolitical, they do have the right to act in order to protect the teachings of the Buddha. They do this by refusing to accept food donations from those they believe have violated those teachings. By "turning over the bowl," they withhold hpoun.

That is just what happened in 2007, during public protests over an unannounced removal of fuel subsidies by the military government.

After a brutal crackdown on several hundred monks who had joined the protests in the name of relieving human suffering (a core Buddhist teaching), tens of thousands of monks protested this assault on religion by marching through the streets holding their bowls upside down. In the end, junta leader Than Shwe earned the title "Monk Killer," lost his legitimacy and in 2011 resigned from the position of head of state he had held since 1992.

Not surprisingly, the military was anything but happy with this development. So they did what Burmese leaders in similar situations had always done: denounced those who denied them hpoun as false monks and found monks who would support them.

The campaign against the Rohingya was spearheaded by one of the latter, who sold the campaign to the Burmese public as all about preserving Buddhism against alien religious power and influence.

None of this is to say that Western ideas of democracy and human rights have been absent in Myanmar. In 2007, some younger Burmans, including monks, embraced them — but their standard-bearer, Aung San Suu Kyi, only up to a point.

The daughter of the martyred independence leader Aung San, Suu Kyi spent 15 years in house detention as head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party whose landslide electoral victory in 1990 the generals refused to accept. Despite the name, the party has been less pro-democracy than anti-dictator — in traditional Burmese terms, as opposed to illegitimate kingship.

According to Jordt, the arrangement of a shared civilian-military rule that has just been overthrown was a diarchy, an awkwardly shared rule that pitted Senior General Min Aung Hlaing against civilian leader Suu Kyi. The coup, led by Min Aung Hlaing was grounded in his hope that, at age 75, her power was on the wane.

His own current effort has been to build up his hpoun by donating to monks and important pagodas and consulting with the monastic leadership. He is seeking to demonstrate that the entire country, supernatural as well as natural, is with him and that he is the legitimate ruler in the traditional way. It remains to be seen whether he can bring the sangha with him.

This time around, however, exposure to social media has made the Burmese people far more aware and supportive of democracy as such. Gen Z has been at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement far more inclusive than anything that occurred in the past.

The activists are doing investigative reporting, doxing those who support the military. Significantly, many of the protest messages on Twitter and in the streets are being written in English — to let the world know what has been going on in their previously shuttered society.

In the face of these massive protests, Min Aung Hlaing has been compelled to make his claim to power in terms of democracy. "Democratic practice allows people to have freedom of expression," he said on Feb. 9. "Democracy can be destroyed if there is no discipline."

So far, however, there's no sign that the protesters consider this anything more than lip service.

"What's really changing is the idea of the location of power," says Jordt. "The old system of personalized sovereignty is being challenged by the broader system, the rule of the many. There's been a remarkable change in the landscape.

"We're in a period in which there are two competing concepts of political authority. I don't think we're going to see an eclipse of traditional Buddhist ideas. But what the younger generation is trying to bring about is a future in which many identities — ethnic, religious, age- and gender-related — have a place in the Burmese state. Whether such a future will come about is an open question."

• Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the college's Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. He is a Contributing Editor of the Religion News Service.
• Reprinted with permission.

Myanmar is "a nation that I carry in my heart with much affection, ever since my apostolic visit there in 2017," he said after the Angelus on Sunday.

New Zealand's leaders are likewise concerned about the 1 February 2021 military coup which deposed Myanmar's democratically elected government.

The military has detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi whose National League for Democracy Party won a landslide in a November general election.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, making the announcement after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said all "high-level" political contact would be ended, and New Zealand's aid programme "should not" be delivered in conjunction with, or benefit, the military.

Ardern, speaking earlier, said the Government's response represented "important, fundamental changes" to the relationship between New Zealand and Myanmar, and were "right up there" among the strongest actions that could be taken.

Ardern said New Zealand would maintain its aid programme - which mostly consists of agricultural, educational, and renewable energy spending - as none was currently connected to the military.

"This will mean being very cautious about the way that we enter into aid programmes in Myanmar from henceforth," she said.

A travel ban on Myanmar's military leaders will be formalised later in the week.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar on Sunday to denounce last week's coup and demand Aung San Suu Kyi's release, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms.

A line of armed police with riot shields set up barricades, but did not try to stop the demonstration. Some marchers reportedly presented police with flowers as a sign of peace.

Closer to home, hundreds of Myanmar demonstrators and their New Zealand supporters showed solidarity with the people protesting in Myanmar's city streets, by banging pots and pans on Parliament's forecourt on Tuesday evening.

"We are deeply concerned and fearful for our family at home. We will do anything we can to help our family, friends and loved ones in Myanmar. Please help support us and our families," Christalin Thangpawl​, chairwomen of the New Zealand Myanmar Ethnics Council, told the crowd.

Source

• Stuff
• Stuff
• La Croix
• Vatican News
• Image: CNN

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, who advocates for peace, minority rights and economic justice, has labeled hunger "the more lethal virus" as "starvation is the new virus and hunger is a permanent pandemic during Covid."

He said 821 million people around the world do not have sufficient food needed to live an active, healthy life. One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night.

He cited Oxfam's estimate that hunger will affect more than 122 million people. At least 12,000 people will die of hunger every day if the contagion continues, while the virus kills some 6,000 to 9,000 every day.

During a homily on Aug. 2, Cardinal Bo raised his concerns about hunger and the impact of Covid-19 on the poor. He said the lockdown has closed livelihood opportunities for the poor, daily wage earners and farmers.

"There cannot be a lockdown for hunger. The human stomach never has a lockdown. The stomach is the most dangerous organ in the body. Starvation can make people slaves and lose all their dignity," he said.

The 72-year-old cardinal said poverty kills nearly 20,000 children every day in poor countries. A rough estimate of death by hunger caused by poverty and the coronavirus would result in at least 10 million deaths a year — more than Covid-related deaths.

"This is a silent hunger genocide as dreadful as world war victim numbers. Not a food shortage but a shortage of justice," he said, adding that greed has taken over humanity and millions are exploited and thousands die of starvation every day.

"There is not only one coronavirus that is ravaging humanity today. The virus of avarice, the virus of exploitation, the virus of hunger, the virus of oppression are destroying humanity," he said.

Health and human crisis

The United Nations said the Covid-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world.

The global body warned hundreds of millions were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is taken, there could be a global food emergency.

A UN policy brief about the impact of Covid-19 on Southeast Asia released in July said about 61 million people in Southeast Asia are undernourished and this number may increase following the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 820 million people were already identified as chronically food insecure prior to the onset of the pandemic.

The latest data shows that the food security of 135 million people was categorized as at crisis level or worse.

That number could nearly double before the end of the year due to the impact of Covid-19, according to the UN report about the impact of Covid-10 on food security and nutrition released in June.

The report said the number of children under the age of five who are stunted now stands at 144 million. That is more than one in five children worldwide.

The number of children classified as wasting stands at 47 million. These numbers could grow rapidly. As of late May, 368 million children were missing out on daily school meals on which they depend.

Near real-time household food security monitoring and model-based estimates suggest that deteriorating employment conditions and other factors may have pushed as many as 45 million people into acute food insecurity since February, the majority (33 million) in South and Southeast Asia, according to the UN.

Tackling inequality, upholding rights

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said tackling inequality, greening the economy and upholding human rights will be critical for Southeast Asian countries during the pandemic.

"As in other parts of the world, the health, economic and political impact of Covid-19 has been significant across Southeast Asia, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest," he said in a video accompanying the launching of the UN's latest policy briefing on the crisis on July 30.

The UN chief commended governments for acting swiftly to tackle the pandemic while the disease arrived in Southeast Asia earlier than in the rest of the globe. "Containment measures have spared Southeast Asia the degree of suffering and upheaval seen elsewhere," Guterres said.

Indonesia is the hardest hit among the region's 11 countries with 5,302 deaths and 113,134 confirmed cases, followed by the Philippines with 2,104 deaths and 106,330 infections, and Malaysia's 125 deaths and 9,001 cases, while Cambodia, Laos and Timor-Leste have no deaths.

The latest data shows that 693, 694 people have died out of more than 18 million confirmed cases worldwide.

• John Zaw is a Myanmar-based journalist and has been working for UCA News since 2005. He has covered religion, interfaith, human rights, and marginalized issues and also provides commentary about peace, ethnic conflict.
• First published in UCANews.com. Reproduced with permission.

Among them are those working in the garment factories that supply some of the world's biggest fashion brands.

The United Nations says the situation will worsen; predicting half Myanmar's garment workers will be out of work.

The Myanmar Garment Manufacturers' Association says the factories had been hit hard by supply chain disruptions and a slump in orders caused by the pandemic.

The garment sector employs an estimated workforce of 700,000, most of whom are women who moved to the city after their traditional livelihood in agriculture was lost due to climate change.

"It is a very dire situation and the impact that comes with losing their jobs is they will not be able to feed themselves. It's really as basic as that," Araddhya Mehtta, country director of ActionAid Myanmar, says.

"With the factories being shut down, it has meant they have lost their only means of livelihood. That's their lifeline really, for themselves and the families that they support."

The situation is "putting women at greater risk of sexual and domestic violence," Mehtta says.

The government's social protection programme is offering some factory workers 40 per cent of their salaries while factors are shut down.

Unpaid wages

Unpaid wages are also an issue for some workers.

One says she hasn't received her salary since January as the factory owner left without paying more than 300 workers.

"With this current situation, we have to be worried about dying from a lack of food first. We just want our salary for the time that we have worked," she says.

A €5 million emergency cash fund has been established by the EU to support Myanmar's garment workers. Each receives an average payment of US$53 for up to three months.

Over the next few weeks, the fund is expected to reach around 90,000 workers. Seventy per cent of the garments made in Myanmar's factories go to Europe.

Myanmar's own COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan outlines a series of measures to cushion COVID-19s economic impact.

It includes an expansion of low-interest loans to affected businesses, cash-for-work and lending programs for rural areas.

While the money is helpful, ActionAid says more support is needed for casual workers and marginalized groups.

Myanmar has reported 161 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including six deaths and 49 recovered, according to health authorities.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: GFC Garment

As an example, although there are only 750,000 Catholics in Myanmar, the Church in the Southeast Asian country ordained 83 new priests last year.

At the same time, only 19 new priests were ordained in Belgium, according to a new study by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

CARA found that after Burma, Thailand had the next highest ratio of new priests, followed by Togo, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Just three percent of Asians are Catholic and only two of Asia's 48 countries are majority Catholic: the Philippines and East Timor.

The overall picture may however change.

"The future of the Church is in Asia," Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said to Pope Francis.

Countries with sizeable Catholic minorities, like India and South Korea, are already sending missionaries abroad.

Both the United States and Great Britain's contributions to the priesthood were far ahead of traditionally Catholic nations, coming in 50th and 49th out of 108.

Catholic-majority countries like Spain came in 73rd, Germany 75th, Ireland 78th, Argentina 98th and France 99th.

Once solidly-Catholic Belgium came last.

CARA based the rankings on the most recent figures for priestly ordinations and Catholic population data for 2017 from the Vatican's Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae.

The researchers included only countries that had at least 100,000 Catholics.

Without the 100,000 Catholics requirement, Nepal would have come first. Other nations such as Samoa, Niger, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Kosovo, Kiribati and Fiji would also have featured prominently.

Source

• Brussels Times
• Catholic Herald
• Image: UCA News

Tayla will be helping people from Myanmar who have come to Thailand either as refugees escaping conflict and living in refugee camps or as migrants seeking work.

The farewell was a shared meal with Tayla and her family. Tayla is in the centre of the above photo with a gold logo on her top.

Having not long completed her bachelor of education to become a primary school teacher, Tayla will work at the Marist Asia Foundation for three months.

She will join another member of the Logos community, Laura McLellan, who is on an eight-month assignment in Ranong.

Both Tayla and Laura are former students of Marist College.

Tayla was the college's Head Girl in 2014.

Since leaving high school, Tayla has volunteered her service and gifts as a Connector in the Logos community, being a part of school retreats, community events and other programmes.

The Marist Asia Foundation began in 2006, responding to the education, health and migrant worker needs of the Burmese community.

Latest estimates suggest Ranong has up to 120,000 Burmese migrants, most of whom work in the fishing industry. Often they find the conditions in Ranong difficult.

The Marist Asia Foundation welcomes volunteers who may come for 6, 12 or 24 months and visitors who stay for a short time to help in many ways.

Because of the immigration and legal documentation required to be a volunteer in Thailand, preference now is given to volunteers who can come for a period of at least 6 months.

Each year, Marist Mission Ranong requires 2-3 volunteers who can help in English and Social Studies classes.

Qualified Teachers are also able to help with teacher mentoring and training.

For more information, download the Marist Asia Foundation Volunteer Application.

Source

• Supplied
• maristasiafoundation.org
• Image: Supplied

The federation's purpose is to foster among its members solidarity and co-responsibility for the welfare of Church and society in Asia. Read more

Speaking at the current synod on youth taking place in Rome, Bo says during synod he was reflecting on the situation for young people in Myanmar.

He says the position young people in Europe are in is "quite different" from young people in Asia.

This is especially so in Myanmar, he says where "with the help of some religious congregations and the Church, we are focusing on saving young women and girls from human trafficking."

Women, he said, are trafficked "from Myanmar to Thailand, and especially from Myanmar to China. Read more