Myanmar military holds military ceremony inside Baptist church
Myanmar’s military held a graduation ceremony with alcohol and dancing for more than 400 members of an allied militia inside the sanctuary of a Baptist church in Christian-majority Kachin state, according to reports.
The Shanni Nationalities Army, a proxy force that answers directly to the army’s Northern Regional Command, used the worship hall at Nant Mun Baptist Church in Nanmun Town for the Sept. 23 event, according to the religious freedom advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
Graduates drank alcohol and danced in the hall, the group said, citing local reports.
The ceremony marked the end of a training course for the recruits, more than 100 of them women, according to the Burma Research Institute. The recruits are known in Burmese as Pyithusit.
Maj. Gen. Aung Zaw Htway, who heads the Northern Regional Command, reportedly oversaw the graduation.
The command is headquartered in Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital, and the militia operates with the general’s backing. Nanmun Town is in the Indawgyi region of Mohnyin Township.
Conflict has forced most Kachin residents out of the town and nearby areas since early 2024.
The institute said the militia picked the church deliberately. The Rev. Lakang Dau Qae, general secretary of Kachin Baptist Churches USA, told the institute in a statement that the ceremony was “an insult to Kachin Christians and to the Kachin people as a whole.”
"The SNA and Major General Aung Zaw Htway, Commander of the Northern Regional Command, know that the church is sacred," the Christian leader said.
He urged Washington to again designate Myanmar a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a U.S. label for governments that severely violate religious freedom.
The Rev. La Seng Labya, president of the Kachin American Baptist Association, asked the Trump administration to protect persecuted Christians in Myanmar.
Zo Tum Hmung, the institute’s president and chief executive, offered prayers and solidarity to the Kachin Baptist Convention and the church and condemned the army’s violations of religious freedom.
CSW President Mervyn Thomas said using a church for a military event marked by acts of disrespect was “a grave violation of freedom of religion or belief.” He called for financial sanctions on the commanders responsible and asked governments to cut off arms, military equipment and aviation fuel for Myanmar’s armed forces.
Thomas also asked for support for independent bodies that gather evidence, including the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, so that war crimes and religious persecution can be prosecuted in international courts.
CSW said the ceremony was part of a systematic strategy by the army and its proxies to use religious sites as weapons and undermine religious freedom in ethnic minority areas. Airstrikes, arson and artillery fire have hit hundreds of churches and other Christian institutions in Chin, Kachin and Karen states, the group said. Other churches have been turned into army bases, command posts or sites for junta propaganda.
On June 9, the military-controlled Supreme Court revoked the licenses of three Baptist pastors to perform Christian marriages through Order No. 254/2026, according to the institute. One of them is the Rev. Zaw Taung, a Kachin Baptist pastor at Jerusalem Baptist Christian Church, also known as Khaung Lwan.
The Rev. Hkalam Samson, then president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, met President Donald Trump at the White House on July 17, 2019, and told him the army was persecuting Christians.
In 2023, a court operating under military rule sentenced Samson to six years in prison, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). He has since been released.
Myanmar was designated a CPC from 1999 to 2023, but no new designation has followed. USCIRF’s 2026 annual report recommended that the State Department redesignate the country.
A new designation would let Washington act against the army through public condemnation, targeted sanctions, canceled official visits and limits on assistance.
