Baptist pastor held hours after release from jail
BANGKOK — A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority was detained by the authorities just hours after he was released from prison under an amnesty by the military government, a relative, a colleague and local media said Thursday.
The Rev. Hkalam Samson, former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention and chair of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, was among the 3,300 prisoners released nationwide Wednesday to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday. The assembly is an umbrella organization uniting religious and civil society groups with political organizations promoting Kachin rights, including autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
Kachin state, in northern Myanmar, has been the scene of intermittent warfare for decades between the army and well-organized and armed Kachin guerrillas.
Samson had been warmly welcomed by family and friends outside the gate of the prison in the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, when he was released early Wednesday afternoon.
At around 10 p.m. Wednesday night, however, security forces and officials came to his home in the city and took him away, said one of his relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared arrest by the authorities.
She said members of his family were told by the authorities they were taking him temporarily for his safety. She added his family, friends and members of other local Christian communities were seeking updated information and to get him released.
A member of the Kachin Baptist Convention told The Associated Press that Samson’s wife, Zung Nyaw, and a member of the Kachin-based Peacetalk Creation Group were taken together with him to Myitkyina prison, where Samson had been held for 16 months.
The Baptist Convention member, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said the three were taken after being told they needed to answer a few questions. No further explanation was given.
Samson is a prominent advocate of the human rights of the ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar and in 2019 was part of a delegation that met the U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the military’s abuse of ethnic minorities. He was detained in December 2022 while preparing to fly to Thailand for a health checkup, and in April last year was handed a six-year prison term after being convicted of violating laws on unlawful association, incitement and counter-terrorism.
Christians make up about 6% of Myanmar’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population, but about 34% of Kachin’s estimated 1.7 million population.
Human rights groups said minority religions including Christians have been significantly persecuted in Myanmar since an army takeover in 2021, when the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and suppressed nonviolent protests, triggering armed resistance that has led to civil war.