The brave relief teams provide aid in the form of food, clothing, medical supplies and expertise.

Always as they do their work they have to avoid being found by the Burmese Army.

The Kachin people in the north have a ceasefire with the regime, but the peace dividend is severely limited. An end to widespread killing and mass displacement is welcome, but the cost is a climate of intense restriction, discrimination, and crimes committed with impunity by military personnel.

A 21-year-old Kachin Bible school student who was raped and strangled by two Burma Army soldiers, said she heard one of the soldiers had raped many girls but had never been brought to justice.
The Chin people in the west also face constant religious and ethnic discrimination and severe abuse. These two ethnic groups feel forgotten by the international community.
   In addition to the many thousands in the ethnic minorities of Kachin, Chin, Karen and Karenni, who are under constant threat and many of whom are Christian, there are also 2,100 political prisoners in Burma.

In the midst of accounts of capture and forced labor, one cruel form of this is the kidnapping of children who are then forced to join the military.

Such is the case of Myint Myint Win, now aged 16, pictured below. Living near Hla Gone Byone SPDC (army)camp in Dwelo Township, Papun District, he was forced to enter the army when aged 15.
He was treated harshly by older soldiers and not given his salary by his army officer who told him he would be killed by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) if he ran away.
However civilians told him this was false and he believed them. He escaped from the Burma Army.
On April 26, 2009, he was able to contact the KNLA and arrived to the local KNLA Battalion head-quarters. He surrendered his rifle complete with its three magazines.  He has been  cared for and provided civilian clothes.     
                           FBR & CSW

Christians in India are heaving a sigh of relief after the rout of the extremist Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in both the national parliamentary and state assembly elections in Orissa state, a scene of anti-Christian arson and carnage last year.

The ruling centrist party won a second term, but concerns over persecution of minorities remain. The embarrassing defeat for the BJP came as a surprise.
A local centrist party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), won government in the eastern state of Orissa.
The new federal government is led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, giving a second term to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the left-of-center Indian National Congress (Congress Party).
John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council (AICC), said the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “defeated not by Christians or Muslims, but by secular Hindus.
“… I am hoping that the BJP will learn that it does not pay to persecute minorities, and that civilized Hindus are disgusted with divisive antics of the **RSS family.” 
An editorial in The Times of India stated, “Internal criticisms within the BJP have brought out that it is losing popularity among youth as well as among the urban middle  classes, two segments where it had been strong earlier and which represent the emergent India of the 21st century”.

 Meanwhile political analyst and senior journalist Vijay  Simha warned , “One would expect a lessening in persecution of Christians and other non-Hindus – however, extremist groups often step up activities to garner funds and patronage when they are on the retreat.  …. So, one could also see a rise in anti-minority activities.”

In Orissa, the BJP won not a single parliamentary seat – not even in Kandhamal.
The BJD broke its 11-year-old alliance with the BJP over its role in the violence which killed more than 127 people and destroyed 315 villages, 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions, and rendered more than 50,000 homeless.
 In the Orissa state assembly elections, the BJP faced a debacle winning only 7 of the 147 seats including two from Kandhamal district in the areas which were at the epicenter of last year’s violence.
Even in Andhra Pradesh state, where Hindu nationalist groups have launched numerous attacks on Christians in the last few years, the BJP’s count was nil.
States where the BJP won a majority of votes and where anti Christian sentiment may yet rise higher are:
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh in the north, and Jharkhand in the east.
**(Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is a Hindu nationalist conglomerate and the parent organization of the BJP.)    Compass       

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