The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has reported that persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Myanmar has intensified even as the country’s military junta has faced significant territorial and control losses to armed resistance groups.
The findings, outlined in USCIRF’s latest report, indicated the challenges confronting religious communities as ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) consolidate power and establish governance structures across Myanmar.
“The situation in Burma continues to deteriorate as the military junta loses control while ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) are consolidating territory and establishing parallel government structures,” the report said. “These escalating conflicts negatively affect conditions for freedom of religion or belief.”
Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, and the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) have reportedly targeted religious leaders and sites in their attempts to maintain control. As of March, USCIRF estimated that the SAC has lost stable control over 86 percent of Myanmar’s territory and 67 percent of its population.
In response to the junta’s dwindling authority, resistance groups, including the pro-democracy National Unity Government (NUG), have garnered substantial support for creating a peaceful, multiethnic Myanmar.
Despite concerns over the NUG’s Bamar Buddhist majority, the government has sought to include minority representatives, such as appointing Rohingya Muslim Aung Kyaw Moe to a ministerial position, in an attempt to gain international recognition.
Religious persecution remains pervasive, with USCIRF citing cases like the April 2023 sentencing of Rev. Hkalam Samson, a Kachin Baptist Convention leader, to six years in prison on what it described as “fabricated charges” of terrorism, unlawful association, and inciting opposition.
Although Rev. Samson was briefly released in April along with over 3,300 other prisoners, he was rearrested within 24 hours and later released again in July.
“Attacks on religious leaders committed by unknown assailants are not investigated,” the report noted, referring to incidents including the March shooting of a Kachin Baptist pastor and the April attack on a Catholic priest during Mass in Kachin State.
The junta’s attacks have not been limited to Christian sites. On June 19, military forces shot and killed senior Buddhist monk Bhaddanta Muninda Bhivamsa in Myanmar’s Mandalay Region, allegedly mistaking his vehicle for that of resistance forces.
“It is unclear whether the monk was intentionally targeted,” USCIRF said, adding that both Christian and Buddhist sites have been targeted by the SAC in recent months.
Since the military coup in February 2021, conflict in Myanmar has resulted in the destruction of over 220 church buildings, including approximately 100 Catholic sites in Kayah State, according to USCIRF.
“Attacks on houses of worship continued in 2024,” the report said, highlighting an August SAC airstrike on a church in Rakhine State that killed 11 civilians, including two children, and injured 11 others.
The USCIRF report emphasizes the junta’s continued enforcement of Bamar-Buddhist nationalism, which has historically oppressed ethno-religious minorities such as the predominantly Christian Chin and Kachin communities and the Muslim Rohingya.
“This nationalism has historically targeted ethno-religious minorities such as Chin and Kachin Protestants and other Christians, Karenni Catholics and the predominantly Muslim Rohingya,” USCIRF reported, adding that Buddhist pagodas have been erected in resistance areas despite the lack of local Buddhist populations.
Internal displacement in Myanmar has surged, with at least 3.4 million people uprooted as of September. The conflict has also triggered a wave of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. “The conflict has sparked new waves of refugees, including from other ethnic and religious minority communities such as Chin, Kachin, and Karenni communities,” the report said.
In Malaysia, for example, Chin and Zomi refugees have faced challenges accessing public services due to limited refugee registration.
Despite challenges, EAOs have established governance models in some regions. For instance, Chin communities in December 2023 established a “Chinland” constitution, advocating secular governance as opposed to the SAC’s Buddhist-nationalist model.
