űAs confirmed to Agenzia Fides by Fr. Dominic Jyo Du, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, on the night between 12 and 13 June Burmese soldiers raided the complex of the Church of the Assumption and the adjoining house of the clergy, and arrested the parish priest and other priests who were visiting him, carrying out a thorough search of the structure. The raid was organised because some parliamentarians of the National League for Democracy were allegedly hiding in Catholic churches and Buddhist monasteries.

In the night-time blitz, the military pulled down the gate of the complex of the Catholic Church of the Assumption, built 200 years ago by the French missionaries. Due to the arrival of the army, many villagers, including elderly women, fled to the nearby forests and then the next day, at the end of the operation, they were able to return to their homes.

As Fr. Dominic Jyo Du reports, on June 13 around 1.30 pm they were all released: “It was still a terrible experience, but, when a priest was told to take off his sacred habit, the parish priest objected, saying that they could also kill him, but he would not do it. He was courageous. The military did not insist and they respected them. Sometimes the military respects the men of God, sometimes they do not. It depends on the people”. The local people were able to embrace the Catholic priests again.

Source: Agenzia Fides