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Junta forces damaged a church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, one of several religious buildings destroyed in fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
Bo, Myanmar’s Roman Catholic leader, lives in the main city of Yangon and was not in Mon Hla village, in the central Sagaing region, when a junta drone bombed St. Michael’s Church on Wednesday night.
“They’ve destroyed an entire side of the church, the whole right side,” said one woman in the village, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.
The church’s bell tower and nave were also damaged, she said.
Opponents of the junta have accused the military of targeting Christian and Muslim places of worship, destroying hundreds of them in its campaign against insurgent forces and their suspected civilian supporters.
Bo has in the past called for attacks on places of worship to end and in 2022, he called for dialogue after a raid by junta forces on his home village.
The junta’s spokesman in the Sagaing region said he “didn’t know the details of the situation yet.”
About a third of Mon Hla’s population are Roman Catholic, rare for a community in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s central heartlands. Its residents trace their origins back to Portuguese adventurers who arrived before British colonial rule.
Sagaing attacks
Residents said it was not clear why the military attacked the village as there was no fighting with anti-junta forces there at the time. Thirteen people were wounded in two previous attacks on the village in October, they said.
There were no reports of casualties in the Wednesday night attack on Mon Hla. Many villagers fled from their homes the next day when drones reappeared in the sky, the woman said.
“We had to flee yesterday. Then today, the drones retreated so we could return. Now, we’ve fled again,” she said.
The Sagaing region has seen some of the worst of the violence that has swept Myanmar since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021.
Insurgent groups set up by pro-democracy activists are waging a guerrilla campaign in many parts of Sagaing, harassing junta forces with attacks on their posts and ambushes of their convoys. The military has responded with extensive airstrikes, artillery shelling and, increasingly, drone attacks.
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In Kanbalu township, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north of Mon Hla, junta forces attacked two villages, Kyi Su and Kyauk Taing, torching about 400 homes including two Buddhist monasteries and two mosques, residents there told RFA.
“Our people had to run from the bombs dropped by drones,” said one resident of Kyi Su. “But for those who ran, their homes were raided and burned.”
“Two monasteries are in ashes and two of our Muslim mosques are unusable.”
Residents said many of the destroyed homes were simple thatch huts, put up to replace homes destroyed in earlier fighting.
Atrocities discussed at U.N.
On Tuesday, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, presented evidence of atrocities committed by junta forces in Si Par village of Budalin township between Oct. 11 and Oct. 20.
Speaking at a committee meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York, Kyaw Moe Tun held up two photos that appeared to show body parts displayed on top of a wooden fence.
“The most recent incident which occurred in Budalin township in this month serves as another solid illustration to prove the junta’s brutality. Some victims were decapitated,” he told the committee.
“Their body parts were dismembered and scattered apart,” he said. “Their heads and body parts were hung on fences of civilian houses.”
He added that, in some cases, the individuals were burned alive.
Kyaw Moe Tun was appointed before the 2021 military coup and has been a key critic of the military junta. His role as Myanmar’s permanent representative to the U.N. is subject to annual review.
The alleged atrocities followed an attack on a column of junta forces in Budalin township on Sept. 30 that left 33 junta soldiers dead.
Junta troops carried out retaliatory attacks in the area in the weeks that followed, according to the shadow National Unity Government.
Some 400 homes in 10 villages, including Si Par, were burned down in October, forcing about thousands of civilians to flee Budalin township, residents told RFA.
At least 24 local residents have been killed due to arson and airstrikes of the junta troops in recent weeks, the NUG said in a statement issued on Oct. 22.
Attacks by junta troops have been getting more brutal, according to Moe Thaut, an officer for the People’s Defense Force in Si Par village. He confirmed that junta soldiers dismembered body parts belonging to village residents.
The junta denied on Oct. 21 that their soldiers were responsible for the recent deaths of six people in Si Par village.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.