Over 20 thousand Christians gather in Manipur to pray for Myanmar

A prayer campaign for freedom and democracy was launched this week in Churachandpur district and elsewhere in the north eastern state of Manipur, participated by over 100 churches comprising more than 20 thousand Christians. The event expressed solidarity with the political prisoners and the democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The campaign which was organised by the Myanmar Christians Fellowships (MCF) was also joined by the Burmese Christians in exile who offered mass prayers for Burma.

“The aim of this campaign is to pray for peace, restoration of democracy and for the release of all political prisoners in Burma," Ko Lay, General Secretary of the MCF said. He added the campaign also prayed for “the Burmese military generals so that they change their mind and abandon their evil ways.”

Meanwhile Babloo Loitongban, Director of ‘Human Rights Alert’, in Imphal (Manipur), revealed to AsiaNews that “Three Burmese nationals from the Western side of Burma have been detained after the crisis in Burma by the Indian authorities and they are in custody. We are trying to also give some legal aid to them; we are also moving court to have them treated as refugees, as we are doing with other Burmese mainly students. Many union leaders from Myanmar have taken refuge in Imphal and we are also helping them.”

“In western Myanmar, which borders Manipur there were some attempts to protest against the military junta, but we were informed the number of protestors were rather few, this is largely due to the fact that in the border areas like the ‘Tamu town’ which is predominantly a ‘Traders town’ and the people there earn a livelihood by trading with Manipur and the rest of India, so the protest was not very strong.”

However, the group which organised the protest expressed disappointment over the soft response of the Indian Government on the issue.

“International pressure is important but much more crucial is the response by the neighbours– big neighbours like India China and Thailand is what is going to make a major difference in how Burmese military responds,” such as allowing access to the UN Observer and establishing dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, quoted AsiaNews.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Burmese tribal people have fled to India, saying they face huge fines if they fail to join pro–junta rallies, rights groups claim.

Members of the largely Christian Chin group are entering the border state of Mizoram to escape the military regime.