(UCAN): Reverend Hkalam Samson, former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention [KBC], was briefly detained for questioning at Mandalay International Airport on December 4 and released on December 5 after he was banned from leaving the country, according to local media reports citing sources monitoring his arrest. He was rearrested in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state, after flying home from Mandalay.
The KBC has called on authorities his immediate release.
“We, the KBC and members of the community are deeply concerned about the arrest of Samson,” KBC leaders said in a December 5 statement.
Other groups also called for the Christian leader’s release.
“We join our voices with those demanding his release and consider Dr. Samson to be in grave danger of torture,” said the Burma Advocacy group of American Baptist Churches in the US.
“We fear for his safety and life while being unlawfully detained. This is the most recent in a string of attacks directed against the people of Kachin state by the military junta,” the group said.
The reason for Reverend Samson’s arrest of remains unclear.
In August 2019, he was sued by the military for alleging at a meeting with the then-US president, Donald Trump, that Myanmar’s military oppresses minority Christians.
He was among 27 people from 17 countries alleged to be victims of religious persecution invited to meet Trump. “As Christians in Myanmar, we are being oppressed and tortured by the Myanmar military government,” he told Trump during the televised meeting.
Reverend Samson is currently working as an advisor to the KBC after serving for a decade as president and general secretary of the organisation.
He is also the chairperson of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, a group of religious leaders, politicians from Kachin parties and members from the Kachin Independence Organisation—the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army.
