Burmese army admits detaining two Baptist pastors who went missing last month

Jardine Malado Monday, January 23, 2017

Soldiers from the Shan State Army-South march in formation during a military parade celebrating the 69th Shan State National Day at Loi Tai Leng, the group's headquarters, on the Thai-Myanmar border February 7, 2016. | Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

The Burma Army announced last Thursday that it had detained two Kachin Baptist pastors, whose disappearance last month raised concerns among human rights groups.

In November, Langjaw Gam Seng, 35, and Dumdaw Nawng Lat, 65, assisted journalists from Rangoon to take photographs of the rubble of a Catholic Church. The church had been destroyed by airstrikes in the battle between the Myanmar Army and the Brotherhood of the Northern Alliance, a new coalition of ethnic groups in northern Myanmar.

The two pastors were last seen on Dec. 24 after they were summoned by the Burmese army to a military base in the northern Shan state.

The military had previously denied detaining the two men, and government officials have not responded to questions from human rights groups or the pastors' families. However, the Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that the men had been secretly detained for security reasons.

The pastors were suspected of recruiting and spying for Kachin ethnic rebels, according to the Indian Express, citing the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The army said in a statement that the two men were investigated in accordance with Section 376 of Burma's Constitution, which stated that no one can be detained for more than 24 hours without charge except "on precautionary measures taken for the security of the Union or prevalence of law and order, peace and tranquility."

It added that the pastors "could not be detained under investigation by opening files of lawsuits" because of the ongoing military clashes in Mong Ko, and there was no functioning police force in the town during that time.

Zau Ra, an official from the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), rejected the accusations that the two men assisted the rebels. "They only helped the wounded. They did not support the [ethnic armed groups]," he told The Irrawaddy.

The KBC, which is the largest Christian denomination in Myanmar, made a request the Burma Army to turn over the two pastors to the Mong Ko police as soon as possible. The organization has been providing aid to internally displaced people who fled the fighting between the government army and militias in the Kachin and Shan states.