Burma

Rights groups urged the world to pressure Burma to end a crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities after government troops reportedly killed and raped dozens of mainly Christian civilians while burning hundreds of churches and homes.

Burma's government admitted Thursday, January 3, that the military is involved in airstrikes against the mainly Christian Kachin, a week after Worthy News and other media carried reports about a massive offensive in the north of the country.

Burma's military ransacked a Baptist church and broke up a Christian conference of the predominantly Christian Chin community in the latest confrontation between government forces and ethnic minorities, Christian investigators told Worthy News.

Burmese troops kill or torture civilians and destroy churches and even entire villages of the predominantly Christian Kachin minority despite pledges from Burma's nominally civilian government that it seeks ceasefire agreements with ethnic groups, investigators said Sunday, February 12.

Churches and Buddhist monasteries in a mining area of Burma's northern Kachin state have taken in nearly 1,000 refugees, many of them Christians, since New Year's Day, after the Burmese military reportedly attacked a church and killed several people, Worthy News established Tuesday, January 10.

A government military unit assigned to clear a road assaulted and then arrested five men including a pastor of the Catholic Association.