CV NEWS FEED // The Myanmar military junta burned St. Patrick Cathedral in the Banmaw diocese this week and “left it in total ruin.”
Vatican News reports that several weeks prior to the March 16 cathedral destruction, the military dictatorship, or junta, had set fire to the Bhamo cathedral’s rectory, diocesan offices, and high school.
Vatican News also reports that the junta has targeted Catholic churches before. They destroyed the St. Michael’s Catholic Church pastoral center March 3, also in the Banmaw diocese, and on Feb. 6, they carried out the airstrikes that damaged Sacred Heart Church in Chin State.
On March 17, the junta attacked a village in the Mandalay region that was occupied by an opposing armed militia, killing 27 people, including some children, according to Asia News.
The southeastern Asian country has been in a civil war since 2021, when the junta seized the government in a coup.
While various ethnic militias have risen up against the junta and gained control of some areas, Asia News reports that Myanmar citizens have criticized the tactics of these militias.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) recently began conscripting men aged 18 to 45 in Mogok, a town that the TNLA and two other groups liberated from the junta last year. Some sources allege that the group also forcibly recruited women and has attempted to ban the internet.
“After facing objections, they are abducting men in the streets. The TNLA treats people like the regime did,” stated one woman, who was not identified, according to Asia News.
Last year, the junta forcibly conscripted men aged 18 to 45 and women aged 18 to 35 in all the cities that they controlled. They have also banned internet use in their controlled areas.
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