Burma 'orders Christians to be wiped out'

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/21/wburma21.xml

The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry. Entitled "Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state.

The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness." Its discovery follows widespread reports of religious persecution, with churches burnt to the ground, Christians forced to convert to the state religion, Buddhism, and their children barred from school.

Human rights groups claim that the treatment meted out to Christians, who make up six per cent of the population, is part of a wider campaign by the regime, also targeted at ethnic minority tribes, to create a uniform society in which the race and language is Burmese and the only accepted religion is Buddhism.

In the past year, an estimated 27,000 members of the predominantly Christian Karen tribe were driven from their homes in eastern Burma.

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[MrPrax]

9. The wider campaign...

is the one missing from this bit of propaganda.

Does it help the context to explain that the Karen are also part of something called Karen National Union and have been fighting for independence for the last fifty years. Their http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6207343.stm">longtime leader died just a couple of weeks ago.

It's a little more complicated when you start to flesh out the 'Christian' victim meme as simply a 'fear' tool used angry up the blood of the white Crusaders. Producing propaganda like this to de-contextualize reality might be interesting if you are promoting

BTW -- The Thais haven't been any nicer to these poor folks who still remain as terrorized refugees on the Thia border. Maybe it has something to do with the huge hydro-dam those governments are building that will end up flooding a good chunk of the Karen's land; power those regimes say they need to compete internationally.

Some independence movements we like; some we crush. Apparently so do Burmese generals.

:shrug:

"...In truth, the most obvious factor linking all of the above together, however, the real thing they have in common, is not, in the normal sense, religious at all. If there is a religious war going on, waged by men (and a few women) of faith, then that faith is neither Christianity, nor Judaism, nor is the war against Islam per se. It comes instead from the fundamentalist Church of Our Man of Global Domination and at its heart is the monotheistic religion of Force. If the arc of instability were inhabited by recalcitrant, angry, sometimes armed, and sometimes destructive Buddhists, sitting on vast energy reserves, this war would look like a war against the Buddha himself.

The essential doctrine of faith that ties all the disparate foreign-policy acts of this administration together is the belief that to every global problem, to every difficult situation, there is but a single striking and uniform response -- not the application of democracy, but the application of force.

In its pursuit of force as a faith, the Bush administration has managed to lower the bar on all applications of force by any state (just as it has raised the value of a nuclear arsenal and so, despite its threats of war, lowered the bar on the proliferation of those weapons). This is but a small part of the price a regime of force must pay when force is such an inadequate instrument in our world. The single most striking aspect of Bush foreign policy is that, over and over, it is revealed to be a quiver with but a single arrow in it. If things are going well, you reach back, take that arrow of force, or the threat of it, and notch it into your bow. If things are going badly, you do the same. For an administration so focused on the domination of planetary resources, its officials have, in fact, proven themselves remarkably resourceless..."

TomDispatch

[China_cat]

3. Is it Burma again?

Last I looked, it was the Republic of Myanmar.

[mcscajun]

10. Exceptions

Nations and international bodies that do not recognize the current military junta ruling Myanmar continue to call it Burma (or the Union of Burma).

[acmavm]

4. Geez, Buddhaism used to be a peaceful, pacifist type religion. I guess

the crazies everywhere have taken over.

[SOS]

17. Somehow

it seems doubtful that the vicious military junta spends much time reading the Dhammapada.

[rodeodance]

22. it surely is not the Buddism I know of!!

[SoCalDem]

23. Apparently they are aiming for a "new" buddhism

Militant-buddhism.:puke:

Be peaceful and gentle or I'll have to kill you !

[Joe Bacon]

24. Google "Soka Gakkai" and see what pops up

It's a Japanese Nichiren cult that is their counterpart to the Christian Coalition. The Gakkai is just a crooked cult that has infiltated the highest levels of the Japanese govenment, just as the Christian Coalition has infected ours!

[NuttyFluffers]

27. all dogmas claim to be peaceful and pacifist. but power corrupts...

nothing new. every religion that ended up having significant power with a state ended up involved in corruption and violence at some point, even those that espouse renunciation of the world and extreme non-violence. case in point, even the jains had an empire... power and self-righteousness never went well together. that's why separation of powers is important, including separation of church and state. mankind can not be trusted with itself.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. Colonialists tend to have a rough time

Just ask the Kosovo Muslims.

To nations who've endured conquest and subjugation, the religions of the invaders are generally viewed as intrusive. Slap this together with the REALITY that whenever religion is added to the mix, many people feel the zeal and are no longer beholden to any civilized behavior. There's no compunction to live and let live. "Others" are vermin who're not only fair game but deserving of their fate. It's not just "right" to get rid of those who don't suck up to the local "one true faith", it's some kind of sacred duty.

This should be no surprise.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Hawaii (The Movie) made me aware of how one person's

religion can ruin another persons culture/life.... when it is forced upon others.



On the other hand, I understand that Christian churches were pretty much left to their own during Saddam's rule.

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[Crunchy Frog]

11. Yeah,

not like Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot killed very many people.

[mod mom]

12. Ah, religion-it unites the masses.

[msongs]

13. the golden rule comes home to roost? some buddhists are just as bloodthirty as some xtians nt

[mmonk]

14. I'm unfamiliar with the specifics, so I won't comment.

Why were there so many deleted posts? Obviously offensive I presume.

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[yojon]

16. Now THIS is a war against Christmas

I wonder if Bill O will take note. Somehow I doubt it.

[Occulus]

29. I wonder if there will be an outpouring of Christian love and support from the bible belt.

The fact that I feel I have to wonder about that makes me pause all by itself.

[slackmaster]

18. Being oppressed is the core of Christianity

Trying to eliminate Christianity by oppressing Christians has never worked in the past, and there's no reason to think it would work in this case.

Fools.

[VegasWolf]

19. On the other hand, Christians oppressing non-Christians has worked well. Crusades, etc. nt

[OregonBlue]

20. I wouldn't bet on it this time. This military junta is a very ugly bunch.

No compunction against religious and racial cleansing. Not really Buddhists at all, just money hungry corrupt thugs!! who will stop at NOTHING.

[oblivious]

21. Misleading headline. This is why I never trust these right-wing rags.

The headline says Christians to be wiped out, implying killed. But the story is about wiping out Christianity and imprisoning evangelists.

Furthermore, the military regime has denied authorship of the document.

I know the regime is vile in many ways, but when I see the new emphasis by the US on human rights in Myanmar, I wonder, .... dare I mention natural gas, pipelines, that sort of thing......

Myanmar oil, gas sector absorbs fresh foreign involvement in year-open of 2007
A Chinese oil company signed contracts here Monday with the Myanmar Ministry of Energy on conducting crude oil and natural gas exploration at three deep-sea blocks off Myanmar's western Rakhine coast, signifying a fresh foreign involvement in Myanmar in the sector in the year-open of 2007.

... Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 TCF or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said.

The country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve, official statistics indicate.
http://english.people.com.cn/200701/16/eng20070116_341829.html

[fujiyama]

25. The military regime in Burma

has a terrible human rights record, so this should come as no surprise.

I don't know how anyone could defend them.

[oblivious]

26. I'm trying to think of one country or any person who is defending them. But I can't.

[T_i_B]

28. That's cos most of the messages defending them have been deleted.

There are plenty of people on DU who approve of religous hatred, just as long as its towards a grouping they don't like. Usually on here it's towards Christians, but there is also quite a bit of anti-semitism on DU as well and even a smattering of similar sentiment towards Muslims. Small wonder the left can't get elected really as you guy's don't deserve power.

One of many reasons why the claim that lefties are more "enlightened" then anyone else is a lie of massive proportions.

[eagler]

30. What you are saying needs to be said here.

nt

[BoneDaddy]

31. What a shame

But what you will see, unlike many Christian or Muslim groups, is an outspokeness within other Buddhist groups and leaders. My guess is the Dali Lama will have plenty to say on the issue.

Again, like Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it is the use of the majority religion, Buddhism, as a vehicle for power. If the country was Islam or Christian, the powers that be would be using it as a tool as well. It is just harder to justify this line of thinking and acting as it is so oppositional to Buddhist texts and writings.