YANGON (UCAN): Security forces in Myanmar released six young priests who were detained after a raid on Assumption Church in Chanthar village, the Diocese of Mandalay, and its clergy house at 1.00am on June 13. The six were guests who had attended liturgical programmes on the feast of the Sacred Heart on April 11 in Ye-Oo, a nearby town. They were held for suspected links to civil resistance groups.
Security personnel in 11 trucks swooped in after raiding a Buddhist monastery in a midnight operation following information that training was underway in the monastery to prepare young people to be part of civil resistance groups.
The young priests were detained for 15 hours, according to a Church official said. They were handcuffed and not allowed to wear their robes when they were taken to the police station. However, the parish priest was not arrested and allowed to remain in the village. News of the detentions spread to other parishes during Sunday Masses and Catholics were urged to pray for their immediate release.
The arrests came after army targeted and attacked churches in Loikaw diocese in Kayah state, and Pekhon in southern Shan state.
Father Anthony Zaw Win, one of the arrested priests, explained that they arrived at the police station around 5.00am on June 13 and they “were treated well.” The police recorded details of their background and work, and their current and previous parish work.
“When they were convinced that we were Catholic priests, one of the senior police officers signaled to release us. They just asked questions and they didn’t do anything to us while we were briefly detained,” Father Win said.
Chanthar, where missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) began work in the mid-1800s, has a considerable Catholic population.
Soldiers also arrested Father Columbano Labang Lar Di, a priest from Diocese of Banmaw in Kachin state, while he was travelling to Myitkyina on May 13. He was released after four days in the military compound in Banmaw after the intervention of Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam (Sunday Examiner, May 30).
The military has also raided churches in Kachin state and at least five Catholic churches in the Diocese of Pathein in the Irrawaddy Delta in April.
Several independent civil resistance groups have been fighting government forces since the army took power in a coup d’état on February 1 (Sunday Examiner, February 7), disposing of the elected government. Some of these groups have taken up arms to fight the military but most follow non-violent methods such as street demonstrations.
