Two weeks of democracy protests in Burma have been brutally crushed by the ruling military junta. What's at stake here is more than politics. Myanmar (formerly Burma) is slightly smaller than Texas and is located in Southeast Asia. During the glory days of the great British Empire it was part of India, but became a separate colony in 1942. Japanese forces took over most of the country in 1942. The Allied forces recovered control of the country by 1945. Burma gained its independence in 1948, but promises of autonomy for minority regions, such as the Shan and Karen states, were never fulfilled, prompting armed separatist movements in those areas to this day. Today there are approximately 135 ethnic groups in Burma comprising about 65 million people. Of these, about 8% are believed to be Christians. Foreign missionaries have been banned since 1966, but there is a vigorous but guarded witness through a score or more of indigenous ministries. Map from CIA Factbook.

The "Burmese Way to Socialism" In 1962 General Ne Win overthrew the civilian government in a coup, suspended the constitution, banned all opposition, and initiated the "Burmese way to socialism." After 25 years of economic hardship and repression, the people demonstrated for freedom in 1988-1989, forcing General Win to step down, but the demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the military junta, called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In the May 1990 elections, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide, but the SLORC responded by putting the elected leader, Ang San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the next year, bringing worldwide attention to the government's suppression. This brought the release of Suu Kyi in 1995. A new constitution, written in 1994, called for an elected executive branch, but prevented Suu Kyi from running for that office. In 1997 the ruling junta was renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), but its tactics remained the same, and Suu Kyi and other members of the NLD were "detained" again in 2003.                                                                 Maru father and child In 1989 the SLORC changed the name of the country to Myanmar, and Rangoon became Yangon. The argument was that whereas "Burma" reflected the major ethnic group, the Bama, or Burmans, "Myanmar" was more inclusive of the country's diverse population. Recently pro-democracy activists have disagreed, arguing that both names mean the same, and they advocate a return to "Burma," since Myanmar was declared by the hated SLORC with no voice of the people. However, the country is known as Myanmar in the U.N. and the Olympics. The country suffers from economic mismanagement. There is virtually no production of anything. All vehicles are ancient; storefronts in Yangon appear worn. Food prices have doubled in recent years, and the government's tripling of fuel prices in early September sparked the current peaceful demonstrations that were cruelly crushed by the military junta. Brutal suppression   The country is officially secular, though "The SPDC promotes the Theravada sect of Buddhism, and persecutes ethnic Christian and Muslim minorities - even those belonging to certain sects of Buddhism," according to Washington D.C. based International Christian Concern. Yet the gospel has taken root among certain ethnic groups, such as the Kachin in the North, the Chn and Naga tribes in the West, and the Karen and Karenni groups in the Southeast. It is reported that the Karen are predominantly Christian, and ASSIST News founder Dan Wooding said he had to prove he was a Christian before Karen freedom fighters would agree to let him interview them some time ago.                                                    Photo shows Hmong church The Karen independence movement greatly displeases the SPDC, which sends the Burmese Army after them. Here is an incomplete list of Burmese Army atrocities reported in the last 12 months by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organization based in U.K. (Dates in parentheses indicate date reported): ·        Machine gun attacks on Karen villages force 1,450 people to flee their homes in one valley (October 30, 2006) ·         Burmese Army open fire on Mawn Ki village, killing one villager and badly wounding another (Oct. 30, 2006) ·         November 1 - One man, Saw They Shur, is burned alive in his home at Play Hta village near Hoki, in Toungoo District on 1 November. ·         February 21, 2007 - troops from Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion 590 kill two Karen men, Saw Echo Win Naing and Saw San Myint from two different villages. ·         February 24 - Troops from Battallion 378 shoot and kill 22-year-old student, Saw Mah Sha Htoo, and wound his brother, Saw Hser Nay Say, as they return home from buying rice. ·         March 18 - Burma Army shells villages in Toungoo District.                        Right: Burmese missionary ·         On April 5 Burmese troops mortar Sha Zi Bo village in Toungoo District, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring at least five people. ·         Burmese military shells and burns villages in Nyaunglebin District, destroying farms (May 24, 2007) ·         April 10 - Free Burma Rangers relief worker, Saw Lee Reh Kyaw, is captured while providing humanitarian aid to Karenni villagers. He is interrogated, tortured and shot dead at Burmese Army headquarters. The fate of two village officials captured at the same time remains unknown. ·         April 22 - Burma Army troops burn down four villages in Karen State. ·         April 22 - Burmese troops attack Ha Lee Ku village. More than 1,000 people flee; one man is shot and killed as he tries to escape ·         Five other attacks leave five people killed and a nurse shot and severely wounded. ·         Infantry Battalions 542 and 544 attack Ber Ka Lay Ko village where they reportedly rape and murder a woman. (May 12, 2007) ·         May 7 - Over 1,000 villagers are forced to clear a new road between two army camps in Nyaunglebin District. ·         The army attacks while villagers work in fields. Many hear them coming and flee, but a deaf man does not hear them and is shot and killed. Saw Mu Der, 36, is shot dead and Saw Kwa Kwa, 20, is captured and executed. At least 14 other villagers are captured. (May 15, 2007) ·         May 15 - Burmese Army Infantry Battalions 379 and 380 attack Saw Ka Der village in Mon Township, causing 600 villagers to flee into the jungle. Right: Burmese missionary ·         May 16 - Some 2,000 villagers in Toungoo District are forced to carry rations for the Burma Army. ·         Elsewhere soldiers attack villages in Papun District; they rape and kill a 27-year-old woman (May 24, 2007). War against civilians   CSW states that more than 27,000 civilians were displaced by the Burma Army in Karen State last year, and thousands more this year. Since 1996 more than 3,000 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed by the Burma Army, driving an estimated 1 million people from their homes. Over 1,200 political prisoners are in jail. One man told CSW he had been jailed and beaten so severely that he lost his sight in one eye. He said he had been subjected to water torture, electric shocks to his genitals and covered with red ants. "They come hunting people. Whatever they see in the jungle, they steal, burn and destroy. They steal pots, clothes, everything from people's homes. I dare not return to my village. There is no hope, no place for me for the future," he said.  Right: Large evangelistic meeting in Burma. In an article dated June 1, 2006, CSW told of a description offered by a Christian Burmese pastor: "Prisoners in Chin State are shackled and used for forced labour on Burma's tea plantations, rubber plantations and road construction projects. Some are yoked like oxen and forced to plough the fields. Food rations are so poor that prisoners eat pig swill, or even their own feces. Anyone caught trying to escape is tied up and dragged along the ground 'like a dead animal', or 'roasted' on a burning bamboo stake. If they scream in pain, a heated crowbar is used to pierce their flesh until the bone is exposed." CSW states, "The regime is guilty of the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, the use of human minesweepers, extra-judicial killings, the destruction of over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma since 1996, and the displacement of more than a million people." A January 2007 50-page booklet, Carrying the Cross, published by CSW provides in-depth documentation to this deplorable war against humanity. It is downloadable from the CSW website. http://www.csw.org.uk/ A special CSW-sponsored day of prayer was observed by churches in 13 countries on September 9. Christian work in Burma   Adoniram Judson arrived in Burma in 1815, and soon began translating the New Testament into Burmese. He had just finished translating the entire New Testament when the British attacked Rangoon in May 1824. Burmese authorities put English-speaking Judson in prison-never mind he was an American. His wife, Ann (known as Nancy), knew the house would soon be searched, so she put the precious manuscript into a pillow so hard not even the guards would want it, and sent it to him in prison. Gathering in northern Burma. File photos from recent years supplied by Christian Aid. The next year the prisoners were moved to another prison, and in the confusion the precious pillow was left behind. However, Manug Ing, Judson's fourth convert, spied the despised pillow on a trash heap, and risked his life returning at night to retrieve it. When Judson was released six months later, his joy in reuniting with his family was surpassed by Maung Ing's presenting to him the entire manuscript of the Burmese New Testament. That translation is still in use today. Maung Ing's fourth daughter, Mei Phaw, was a believer, but her son, Tha Doon Aung, was a rigid Buddhist. Three times he tried to murder his mother for following "the religion of the foreigners." The last time, as Aung raised his sword to kill his mother, she dropped to her knees and cried out, "God, please forgive my son; he doesn't know what he is doing." Suddenly Aung couldn't move his arm. He dropped his sword, fell to his knees, and accepted Christ. Tha Doon Aung's fourth son, Tun Nyo, married and had four children. One son, Tin Maung Tun, became an aircraft engineer, but gave up his job to start Witnessing for Christ in 1973. His sister, Wendy Tha Nyein, came to the U.S. in 1985 and personally told me this story. Witnessing for Christ today trains and sends out Burmese missionaries, witnesses through tracts and radio broadcasts in a dozen languages, plants churches, cares for orphans, and has a special ministry to the disabled and terminally ill. Right: Sharing Christ with a group of Buddhists. Other Burmese Christian ministries have similar outreaches. At least eight indigenous ministries have their own Bible schools. United Christian Mission in northern Burma conducts what it calls "rainy season schools," when folks can't work in the field, a tradition started by missionaries of China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor. UCM actually is the fruit of a missionary with China Inland Mission. English missionary J.O. Frazer led a Lisu witch doctor to the Lord around 1910. On his death bed the converted witch doctor requested that at least one son from each generation of his family be trained to serve the Lord. One grandson, Daniel Fish, now leads UCM, and two of his sons are preparing for ministry with him. There are over 100,000 Lisu Christians in Burma, with an additional 120,000 in China, 10,000 in Northeast India, and 5,000 in Thailand. Go Za Kham became a gospel preacher among the Chin tribe in western Burma. The ministry, known as Evangelical Believers Conference, has planted numerous churches among the Chin, Kachin, Lisu, Longwas, Lahu and Akha tribes. In relatively recent years Go organized Myanmar Tribal Salvation Mission to take the gospel to other unreached tribes of Burma. He also operates several children's homes to take care of the many children orphaned by the continuing military conflicts. Right: Two orphan girls. Myanmar Gospel Outreach was begun by Ronnie Lalthanliana in 1955. Once jailed because of false evidence planted on his property by rival ministries, he used the time, like the apostle Paul, to pen 17 hymns, and the manuscripts of 20 books, which were later published in Mizo, his native tongue. The work continued to grow and has planted over 350 churches. Lalthanliana went to be with the Lord in 2005, but the ministry continues under the leadership of Jeremiah Sang Dun and has at least 200 church planters on the field. These and other Christian ministries indigenous to Burma continue to operate under repressive conditions. The government makes available rice rations to the people, but Christians are routinely bypassed in the distribution. Opposition by local Buddhists has tacit approval of the authorities. Yet the prayers and financial gifts of God's people worldwide help sustain a vibrant if struggling Christian witness inside the country. Persons who want to learn more about ministries in Myanmar or how they can help them are encouraged to contact Christian Aid at info@ChristianAid.org or call (434) 977-5650.