MANDALAY (UCAN): Soldiers continued an arson campaign by Myanmar’s military juna against villages in the country’s central Sagaing region, attacking a historic Catholic village, burning down almost all the homes previously left standing, local sources said on December 14.
More than 300 houses, which had been spared in previous attacks, were destroyed during a raid on Chan Thar village in the predominantly Buddhist region.
It remains unclear if the century-old Assumption Church, a convent and the priest’s house were affected in this latest attack, the third in seven months.
Nearby Buddhist villages were also torched.
Some 20 houses were destroyed and two Catholics, including a mentally disabled man, were killed during a raid on May 7 and over 110 houses were set ablaze again by junta troops on June 7.
Local sources said almost all of the 500 houses in Chan Thar had been destroyed by fire on December 14.
“It is a historic Catholic village that has now become a place of ashes,” a priest from the village said.
Most of the villagers had already fled their homes for safer areas including church premises and relatives’ homes in Mandalay and other townships since January.
The junta specifically targeted three Catholic villages in the Bamar heartland of Sagaing to tackle growing resistance to military rule by people’s defense forces suspected of being based there.
More than 300 houses, which had been spared in previous attacks, were destroyed during a raid on Chan Thar village in the predominantly Buddhist region
Chaung Yoe, Mon Hla and Chan Thar, which are a part of the Archdiocese of Mandalay are known as Bayingyi villages because their inhabitants claim descent from Portuguese adventurers who arrived in the region in the 16th and 17th centuries. They have produced many bishops, priests, nuns and brothers.
The latest attack came nearly three weeks after more than 110 out of 500 home in Mon Hla, the home village of Charles Cardinal Bo, were set on fire on November 24.
“Their villages are becoming a land of ashes lacking homes, trees and birds. I am deeply sorrowful over thousands of our brothers and sisters who can’t live in their own homes and instead live in makeshift camps who are facing acute hunger,” Archbishop Marco Tin Win said in a July 17 message.
The junta has stepped up its offensives in the regions with artillery shelling, air strikes and the torching of homes in several villages leading to thousands of people becoming displaced.
As of November 30, at least 38,000 homes had been destroyed across Myanmar since the February 2021 coup [Sunday Examiner,
7 Febraury 2021], with the Sagaing region reporting the highest number with 27,496 destroyed homes, according to the latest report by Data for Myanmar.
The conflict triggered by the military takeover, particularly in Christian strongholds such as Kayah, Chin, Karen and Kachin states, has resulted in churches and convents being attacked and raided. Priests and pastors have also been killed and arrested while many unarmed civilians, including Christians, have been killed.
