Myanmar - Heartfelt appeal of Salesian Cardinal Charles Maung Bo

10 February 2017

(ANS - Yangon) - "Myanmar is going through one of the most harrowing moments of its history. The people of Burma are deeply saddened because the country seems to be falling into dark days. Myanmar needs the attention of the world to strengthen its fragile path to democracy.": So says the Salesian Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, in an urgent appeal sent to Fides.

The text cites the report published on 3 February by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling it "deeply disturbing". It speaks of brutality and other serious violations of human rights by the Burmese security forces in Rakhine state, citing acts of "inhumanity and barbarity hard to read and hard to believe," the Cardinal says. It is "a wake-up call for all of us," he adds.

The situation in the northern states of Kachin and Shan is also preoccupying, in particular after the arrest of two Christian pastors of the Kachin ethnic group. "I pray that justice be done and that they be released. I pray also for the thousands of people displaced by the recent military action in northern Myanmar", writes Cardinal Bo, asking the government to "end the military offensive against civilians in the states of Rakhine, Kachin and Shan ". "Peace is possible only with justice," he says. The appeal asks the government to "allow free access to humanitarian agencies, the media and human rights observers in the states of Rakhine, Kachin and Shan".

The Cardinal hopes that the Burmese "executive will work alongside the international community to investigate crimes reported by the United Nations" and he "calls on the international community to be vigilant" and to "support the current Burmese democratic government." "Let us work together,” he concluded, “to end the violence and terror in our country, and to build a nation where every man, woman and child, of every race and religion, is recognized as a neighbour and our brother or sister in humanity" In this spirit, the Burmese Church has declared 2017 "Year of Peace" and will make its contribution.

Source: Fides

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