Churches bombed by regime fighter jets in Myanmar

Church and other religious buildings in Demoso township in the Karenni State of Myanmar were bombed by regime fighter jets on March 8.

“The convent of Sisters of Reparation, a retirement home/hospital for the elderly sisters in Daw Ngan Kha, Demoso township in Kayah State in Myanmar was badly damaged by the aerial bombing at about 6 a.m today, March 10 - just another proof of the regime's genocidal intent,” Father Mireh Wilbert, a Jesuit priest working in Loikaw diocese posted on social media.

Rosy, who grew up in Loikaw, said, “I am so sad hearing the news about the religious buildings are damaged by the regime fighter jets.”

“It is very difficult for me what event to continue to say for it hurt my feeling very much,” says Rosy, now working in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar.

Father Raymond Kyaw Aung, a Pathein diocesan priest, expressed, “I feel unhappy when seeing the photos of damaged churches and convents posted on social media, especially on Facebook because I had visited those churches and convents in 2005. Now, all the churches I visited are damaged.”

“Bombing the religious buildings is an inhumane act. The churches and religious buildings should not be attacked. They are religious sacredness,” Father Kyaw Aung says.

Kantayawaddy Time News, a local media, reported on March 8 that “A church and other religious buildings, including clergy house and other houses were bombed by Regime fighter jets during an attack on a village in Demawso Township in an area where no fighting had previously been reported.”

Myanmar’s Loikaw diocese has shut down 16 churches due to Burmese military forces and Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF); even priests and nuns have to take refuge in the forest.

The Burmese military is shelling on the people daily. People are fleeing to safer places, mainly into the forests, becoming Internally Displaced People (IDP), like refugees in their own country.

“Two-thirds of the Catholic population had to flee to secure areas,” said Loikaw diocese’s official Facebook page.

All, including priests and nuns, had to evacuate to forests.

As of now, six churches were ruined in the war in the diocese.

There are 13 dioceses and three Archdioceses in Myanmar. Loikaw has a Catholic majority. Out of more than 40 parishes in Loikaw, 16 parishes are shut down because people left their homes and parishes due to clashes between the Burmese Military and Resistance Forces in Karenni State.