Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 080 | Wed 03 Nov 2010

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BURMA (MYANMAR): CHRISTIANS AT RISK OF POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE; plus Iraq

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Burma’s ruling military junta ruthlessly promotes ethnic (Burman) and
religious (Buddhist) supremacy and nationalism while repressing, even
violently crushing, all political opposition. (See RLPB 045, 3 March 2010,
and http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com/search/label/Burma .)

The ethnic minority peoples who live in the hills around Burma’s periphery
are mostly Christian and are persecuted by the junta on ethnic, religious
and political grounds. Because of their immense suffering, these groups do
not trust the regime and are seeking autonomy. Ethnic minority groups,
including those who have signed cease-fire agreements with the junta,
consequently are unwilling to have their defence forces disarmed and
absorbed into a national Border Guard Force (BGF). These groups include
the Kachin in the north, of whom some 90 percent are devout Christians.
They are simply unwilling to entrust their security to a centrally-
controlled force dominated by the same Burmese soldiers who have spent
decades indiscriminately enslaving, raping, torturing and massacring their
people.

Shrewdly the regime has made disarmament a condition of participation in
the Sunday 7 November elections. While this sounds reasonable, it is
actually a strategy by which reasonable fears are exploited to
disenfranchise numerous ethnic minority voters. However, that will not
make much difference, as one quarter of all seats are reserved for
appointed military personnel anyway, and the main Union Solidarity and
Development Party (USDP: a front for the ruling junta) is fielding more
than three times as many candidates as all 35 opposition parties combined.
Thus the election result — a convincing win to the junta — is a foregone
conclusion.

The sole purpose of the exercise is to ‘legitimise’ the regime so it can
claim a ‘mandate’ to forcibly subjugate the ethnic-religious minorities.
Recently the regime falsely and provocatively labelled the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) as ‘insurgents’. This is pure propaganda as the
KIA maintains a cease-fire agreement with the regime. Reportedly the junta
has just purchased some 50 Mi-24 combat-ready helicopters and 12 Mi-2
armoured transport helicopters from Russia which they have positioned in
readiness in the northern and central regions of the state. According to
one Kachin church leader, ‘After the election process, we ethnic
minorities can be crushed.’

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL:

* fix the eyes of Burma’s long-suffering minority Christians onto Jesus
(Hebrews 12:2,3) and draw the Church into prayer. ‘I lift up my eyes to
the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.’ (Psalm 121:1,2 ESV)

* intervene in Burma to deliver his Church from evil.

‘O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more’
Psalm 10:17,18 ESV.

(See http://idop.org/pages/resources/devotional.php
IDOP: International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church – 14 Nov 2010)

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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CHRISTIANS IN BURMA AT RISK OF POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE

Burma will hold elections on Sunday 7 November 2010. The result is a
foregone conclusion: a convincing win to the ruling regime. The purpose of
the exercise is to give the ethnic Burman and Buddhist military junta a
facade of legitimacy so it can claim a mandate to subjugate forcibly the
state’s long-suffering and severely persecuted ethnic minorities, many of
whom are predominantly Christian. Having suffered severely over decades at
the hands of the Burmese military, the minority peoples no longer trust
the regime and are seeking autonomy as a means of guaranteeing their human
rights and religious freedom. The regime has labelled the minorities
‘insurgents’, and many believe the regime will launch an offensive against
them after the elections. Please pray for Burma’s threatened Christian
peoples.

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PLEASE PRAY ALSO FOR IRAQ’S IMPERILLED CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

On Sunday 31 October gunmen affiliated with the ‘Islamic State of Iraq’, a
militant organisation connected to ‘Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia’, stormed a
Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad. First they executed Rev. Saad Abdal
Tha’ir, the leading priest, then they sprayed bullets through the
congregation. Having secured around 100 Christians hostage, they called
for the release of jailed al Qaeda members. According to the group’s
website, they specifically targeted the church (which they referred to as
a ‘dirty den of idolatry’) in response to anti-Christian incitement
emanating from Egypt (see last week’s RLPB 079). Indeed the group has
vowed to ‘exterminate Iraqi Christians’ unless two Coptic women, both
wives of Coptic priests who Muslims claim have been converted to Islam,
are not freed from their alleged captivity. When the militants started
executing hostages after a stand-off of several hours, the Iraqi military
stormed the church. The militants responded by unleashing a bloodbath
using automatic rifles, grenades and at least two militants detonating
suicide bomb vests packed with ball-bearings.

Of the 58 dead, 47 were Christians, including three priests. At least 78
were wounded. Iraq’s indigenous, historic, traumatised, imperilled and
dwindling Christian community is in mourning. We must not forget them.
Please pray for mercy, deliverance and perseverance in faith.

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We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Burma Summary
might also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their
worship by people who are leading in prayer.

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’ .

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team.
Previous bulletins may be viewed at .