Myanmar Christians forced to convert to Buddhism: Rights group

Christian students from Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority have been forced to convert to Buddhism.


Afp September 05, 2012

BANGKOK: Christian students from Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority have been forced to convert to Buddhism, shave their heads and wear monastic robes, a rights group said Wednesday.

The Chin, a mainly Christian group in the poor and remote west of the predominantly Buddhist country, face harassment for the link between their faith and British colonial rule, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO).

"President Thein Sein's government claims that religious freedom is protected by law but in reality Buddhism is treated as the de facto state religion", said Salai Ling, Program Director of the CHRO.

Rachel Fleming, another member of the group, said Christianity does not fit with the national view that "to be Burmese, you should be Buddhist".

Chin students are also frequently targeted for enrollment in schools run by Myanmar's military which convert them to Buddhism, she said, adding that Christian students are beaten for failing to recite Buddhist scriptures.

Poverty among the Chin, whose main source of income is farming, leaves the group vulnerable to recruitment to these schools as the military offers free food, education and government jobs once they graduate.

Chin state, which borders India, is home to around 500,000 people. Tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring India to escape army abuses under the former junta, according to rights groups.

In its annual report this year Amnesty International said Chin Christians still face persecution, citing the case of a preacher barred from speaking at a church and ordered to leave the area.

Myanmar is home to a patchwork of ethnic groups and civil war has gripped parts of the country since its independence in 1948.

But Myanmar's reformist government has agreed ceasefires with several ethnic rebel groups as part of reforms since coming to power last year.

COMMENTS (28)

hannibal | 11 years ago | Reply

burma people and gerverment rude and fight muslims and cristians people also hindus always .other countries yshould fight to rude burma and rakings .

Raj - USA | 11 years ago | Reply

@vasan: There is much more to the issue of conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan. It is by rape. No one hears of these girls after they are converted. Their Hindu families are not allowed to meet her and even her new neighbors do not hear of her later. Hindu leaders have claimed live on Pakistan TV that these girls have been pushed to prostitution, or sold off to others, or held in confinement as slaves. These claims have not been refuted by anyone or have been answered so far.

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