Naypyidaw: A Catholic church and several civilian homes in eastern Myanmar's Karenni state have been burned down by Government soldiers.
St. Matthew Church in Dognekhu Parish of Loikaw Diocese was set ablaze on June 15. Soldiers had encamped inside the church and burned it down along with several homes before leaving the area, according to church sources.
Local media reports said the village saw heavy fighting June 10-15 between government troops and KNDF rebels.
At least nine Catholic churches have been hit by artillery shelling and airstrikes by Myanmar’s military in Loikaw Diocese since the conflict between military and rebel forces erupted in May 2021.
Government troops have continued targeting churches and civilian properties in states like Kayah, which have sizable Christian populations, while also attacking historic Catholic villages in Bamar Buddhist-majority regions, killing innocent people and burning homes and livestock.
The KNDF video purports to show government soldiers approaching the white church building as smoke and flames pour out of the windows. Gunfire can be heard in the background. The footage shows isolated fires burning in different locations inside the building. You can watch the video here.
Neither the village nor members or leaders of the church were involved in any of the local fighting, a source told CNA. The soldiers allegedly were under orders to burn down the church after occupying the building and looting valuables including food collected for the local poor.
St. Matthew’s is one of 38 parishes in the Diocese of Loikaw in eastern Myanmar. Some 16 parishes in the diocese have been abandoned by priests, nuns, and, parishioners because of intensified fighting in the area.
Some 1,900 people have died and another 1 million have been displaced under the junta's repressive control of the country, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.
The people of Myanmar remain “trapped in a cycle of poverty and displacement, human rights violations and abuses," Bachelet said.