Friday, March 31, 2006

Suggested Reading

Suggested Reading

Thousands of Karens Flee Burma Offensive

Thailand: October mission to focus on Burma's eastern border on the plight of displaced Burmese families in the area.

I also suggest reading Faith Unbroken: Persecuted Christians In Burma by Crisis online magazine. And the article "Persecution of Chin Christians in the Union of Burma", from the Chin Human Rights Organization.

Other articles about the plight of Christians in Burma:

Burma's Christians caught in war - from OregonLive.com

International Christian Concern

Pray for Burma (there may be disturbing photographs on this website that might not be suitable for all viewers...this website shows examples of the harsh life that Burmese Christians and others suffer everyday).

Monday, March 20, 2006

Burmese Christian Yeh Zaw transferred to Pa-an Prison

Burmese Christian Yeh Zaw transferred to Pa-an Prison

Mar 20, 2006 (DVB) - A member of Rangoon Insein Township Phawkkan evangelical church, Yeh Zaw who was arrested at a police checkpoint in Karen State capital Pa-an on 25 February was transferred to Pa-an Jail on 16 March.

Yeh Zaw was arrested after he returned from the Burmese border town Myawaddy where his brother in law lives, to Rangoon and he was later separately interrogated and beaten up by the army personnel based in Pa-an. Although he was arrested for not carrying identity card with him, he was charged under Act (420-406) for lying, according to his wife Sa Eh who went to see him at the prison recently.

"I went to see him yesterday and as I was followed by the police, he dared not say much. He was afraid," said Sa Eh.

Yeh Zaw was arrested and detained because he wrote a letter with other church leaders to the ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) chairman Gen Than Shwe to end religious persecutions of the local authorities on his church members. - Democratic Voice of Burma.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Faithful Unto Death

Charles Colson speaks about the plight of Burmese Christians in his article Faithful Unto Death. He says "But their valor will be for nothing if the documentation doesn’t produce action. And that’s where we come in. Christians in the West, especially in the United States, need to see the plight of Burmese Christians as a matter of the highest concern. While Burma is a pariah state, it is not immune to external pressure. This pressure is what has kept Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi alive. The place to start, of course, is to get informed."

Monday, March 06, 2006

New evidence backs claims of genocide in Burma - BBC & London Telegraph

New evidence backs claims of genocide in Burma - BBC & London Telegraph

Mar 06, 2006 (DVB0 - According to an article published in London-based Telegraph newspaper on 5 March, fresh evidence has emerged that Burma's military government has not been only waging a brutal war against rebel ethnic groups but also carrying out acts of genocide against their people.

The article starts by saying that there have been allegations that in the past decade, Burmese soldiers have burnt to the ground as many as 3,000 villages and raped, looted or killed many of their inhabitants - citing a Thai intelligence officer who claimed that there is proof that these were systematic atrocities ordered by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

The Thai officer has spent several years studying intercepted Burmese military communications and analysing material found at the scene of horrific incidents inside Burma, the article says. He claimed that some leaflets found on the corpse of a Burmese officer said that the minority Shan people, meaning the whole Shan race whether they are armed rebels or not, ‘are the enemy and have to be destroyed.'

The article goes on to say that beheadings, beatings, the use of forced labour and rape of captured victims by troops of the SPDC are also common. "Growing use of amphetamines among Burma's 400,000-strong army is fuelling this violence," it continues, backed up by the comment of David Mathieson, a narcotics expert from the Australian National University who claimed that methamphetamine tablets were found on most dead Burmese soldiers who were killed during the clashes.

Moreover, "the brutality of the attacks is evident in video footage, taken by members of the evangelical Christian missionary group the Free Burma Rangers, of the burning of villages," says the article. "The video shows young men, armed with AK47s, setting fire to bamboo homes as residents flee in terror."

BBC correspondent Mike Thomson's reports on life in Burma will be broadcast on UK Radio 4's Today programme at 7.30am from Monday to Friday this week (6-10 March). For details visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Questions from Email

Questions from Email:
What is Nettara?

Nettara is the name given to the ecclesiastical territory where Mshikhanim and Christians live in and near Burma. Nettara is not a political organization and does not fight against the local government, although Brothers and Sisters do stand up for their human rights and more importantly their right to serve God in peace. The people in this area do not and never have requested financial aid from governments or from individuals or organizations. The people of Nettara work as "tent makers" to provide for their own communities and do not depend on the world to provide for their needs. The word "nettara" is Assyrian Aramaic and means "protected."

I was told to visit this site by a man who claims that Nettara is a fake kingdom and a scam or hoax. Is this true?

First, Nettara is not a worldy kingdom ruled under un-Scriptural methods. As stated above, Nettara is an ecclesiastical territory which consists of Nazaraeans and Christians who have sought refuge from persecution by the Burma Army, Burma's cancer. Nettara is not a scam or a hoax. A scam is a system that dupes people into sending money or other contributions. No one associated with Nettara has ever requested money or any other kind of contribution from anyone and contributions are refused. Those people who are making claims that Nettara is a hoax are usually uneducated about the serious political problems in the general area or they are the very ones the Burma Army praises, because they spread propoganda against the Christians in this area.

Sadly, because individuals that had once been part of the Church (that assist this area), and for their own reasons have sought to openly slander this very real, authentic and apostolic Church, its beliefs, practices and people, there are certain forums and online groups that provide those who should have been held in high esteem and failed to honor their vocation, a medium to vent. Caring little or nothing for the thousands of serious believers worldwide or for their safebeing.

The Church is real. Its beliefs are authentic and Nettara and its people are very real. Persecution takes many forms, sometimes its physical, other times it takes the form of slander. As the vast majority of believers of this Church (A not-for-profit organization), live in regions that live very simple lives and of simple means; they do not have the tools to defend themselves from all forms of attack. The claims about Nettara is proof of this.

Take no ones word; examine the evidence for yourself and come up with your own conclusion.

I heard that Nettara was a religion or church?

No, Nettara is not a religion or a church, and it is not a religious organization; Nettara is a community of Christian believers living along the borders of Burma and Thailand. There are people of different denominations in this area. There are Shan, Kachin, Chin and Karen Christians as well as Orthodox Nazaraeans. The people who live in these communities are expected to live according to the Scriptures and as upheld by the Church of Jerusalem.

One clergyman of the Church of Jerusalem, Rabban +Mar Andreos, said: "Nestorians now have a homeland...Nettara. Nettara is more than a land mass and a temporal kingdom. It is an Oasis of the Faithful; Nettara is an Idea of God. If evil forces overrun a landmass, Nettara, just like Nestorianism itself, will rise again. The vision of Nettara will stay adamantine, impenetrable, it can never be destroyed, as a Nestorian homeland transcends the physical. The angels of God watch over the faithful in the here and the hereafter.

Nestorianism (the dominant faith of the area) will not be killed by Evil Imperial Forces, Mongol Hordes, Communist regimes, predators that lie about peaceful submission to God or Deviant pseudo-religious entities that misrepresent the Faith of our Messiah. Too many have fought and died for this Faith, to simply allow their efforts and their memories to be ignored. Quite the contrary, we should be honoring them and following in their footsteps!"