Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 684 | Wed 08 Mar 2023
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GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR BURMA/MYANMAR
– Sunday 12 March 2023
by Elizabeth Kendal
Burma/Myanmar is home to more than 135 ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Bamar (Burman) nation. Comprising 60 percent of the population, the Bamar – who traditionally follow Theravada Buddhism – live predominantly in the central lowlands of the Irrawaddy Basin. Meanwhile, the mountainous periphery (which comprises 57 percent of Burma’s land mass) is home to various ethnic minority nations, most of whom are not Buddhist. The Chin (in the rugged and remote west, bordering India) and the Kachin (in the resource-rich north [rich in jade, timber and water], bordering China) are essentially Christian nations. Burma’s largest ethnic minority nation, the Karen (in the agricultural east, bordering Thailand) is around 30 percent Christian, with some tribes being mostly Christian, and other tribes being mostly Buddhist and/or animist. That said, the leaders of the Karen resistance are virtually all Christian. Most of Burma’s Christians are Baptist, the legacy of pioneer missionary Adoniram Judson (1788-1850).
In 1962, Army Chief of Staff, Ne Win staged a coup d’état, declared himself head of state and nationalised the economy, meaning everything – all lands and all resources – now belonged to the Bamar-Buddhist military junta. Since then, the non-Buddhist, non-Bamar ethnic minority nations of the periphery have had to fight for their very survival in the face of a repressive, racist and brutal junta that wants all the resources their lands have to offer, but without the inconvenient and annoying ethno-religious minority peoples who call those lands home – peoples the Bamar-Buddhist supremacists in the junta view as inferior and expendable. It used to be the case that the Bamar of the lowlands did not care what happened to the ethnic minorities. Praise God, those days are over.
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| Left map: regions (Bamar heartland) (white) and ethnic states (coloured). Right map: topography |
On 8 November 2020 Burma held elections, which saw the military lose influence in the parliament. On 1 February 2021, to protect its vast economic empire, the military staged a coup and retook control. The backlash was immediate. [Full background: RLM, 2 March 2021.] From the very outset, the Karen and the Kachin – which both run sizeable armies for self-defence [Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs)] – chose to support the Bamar resistance by training and supporting the Popular Defence Forces (PDFs) of the Bamar heartland. Along with the Chin, they also provided sanctuary to imperilled dissidents, often facilitating their escape into safe havens in Mizoram, India and Thailand. Consequently, the conflict quickly expanded outwards from the Bamar heartland to include the Christian periphery. [See RLPB 590, Christian Crisis Looms, 24 March 2021.] Despite its overwhelming military superiority, the junta has not yet been able to crush the resistance.
In November 2021 the junta launched Operation Anawrahta with the aim of crushing the Bamar PDFs that have proliferated throughout the Bamar heartland – in particular in the western Divisions of Sagaing and Magway – along with those who support them, specifically the Christian Chin [RLPB 621 (27 Oct 2021)]. Increasingly, the military has been employing a strategy known as the ‘Three Alls’: ‘burn all, kill all, loot all’, in the expectation that eventually the brutalised civilian populations will break and pressure the PDFs and EAOs to broker a deal with the junta. In the last six months of 2022 (July through December) 78 percent of the military’s attacks targeted civilians. These attacks mostly comprise military operations to clear and then burn whole villages to the ground. [See: RLPB 659, Divine Intervention Needed, 24 Aug 2022]. Now the junta is increasingly resorting to air-strikes, in which jets drop bombs, or helicopter gunships strafe or fire rockets into villages [RLPB 677 (25 Jan 2023)].
In two years of fighting the Burmese junta has killed around 3000 of its citizens and burned more than 100 townships and villages to the ground. Millions have been added to what was already an enormous population of displaced persons. Though the junta maintains a blockade on humanitarian aid into rebel-held areas, the UN continues to send humanitarian aid to the ‘government’/junta. Across the country, hospitals, schools, universities and local businesses have closed, food and medicine are in short supply, and foreign companies have departed. Churches have been bombed and mined, senior Christian leaders have been arrested [RLPB 675 (14 Dec 2022)] and, in townships under martial law, gatherings of more than five are not permitted. The situation is dire; it is a Christian Crisis of monumental proportions – a crisis in which the West’s political-mainstream media establishment has little to no interest.
To help us pray, Free Burma Rangers has produced a downloadable resource complete with background, testimonies, photographs and prayer requests.
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| Karenni medics with the Free Burma Rangers provide medical aid to displaced Karenni/Karen. FBR July 2021. |
PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL
* intervene in Burma/Myanmar to bring an end to this brutal military junta; may the Holy Spirit move in power and grace through all those connected to the junta to sharpen consciences, induce repentance and open hearts to receive the Gospel.
* move that Burma’s diverse peoples – now united in their resistance against the evil junta – will be united in their desire for a free and peaceful Burma, where diverse peoples respect one another as fellow citizens with equal rights.
* intervene to ensure that Burma’s millions of internally displaced persons – many of whom are Christians, some of whom are languishing in forests and caves – receive all the humanitarian aid they need; including food and clean drinking water, medical care, shelter and clothing, and education and support for their children.
* continue to provide opportunities for Christians to share the Gospel with Bamar Buddists who are – on account of the junta’s brutality – more open to the Gospel now than they have ever been. May the Lord hear ‘the prayers of many’ (2 Corinthians 1:11) and grace Burma with a glorious future of peace, liberty and light.
For Burma: Psalm 2. ‘Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him’ (v2 ESV).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR BURMA/MYANMAR
– Sunday 12 March 2023
Burma is today suffering a Christian crisis of monumental proportions. To crush all resistance, the military junta has resorted to a strategy known as the ‘Three Alls’. It is a military campaign to ‘burn all, kill all, loot all’ with the expectation that eventually the civilian populations will break, and pressure the resistance essentially to surrender and broker a deal with the junta. Over the last six months of 2022, 78 percent of the junta’s attacks targeted civilians. Increasingly the military is resorting to bombing and strafing villages from the air. Millions are displaced without access to humanitarian aid. Across the country, churches have been bombed and mined, while senior Christian leaders have been arrested. In townships under martial law, gatherings of more than five are not permitted. Please pray.
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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com
Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.
For more information visit: www.ElizabethKendal.com