By Bob Allen
American Baptist Women’s Ministries has issued a statement to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urging action in response to the Jan. 19 rape and murder of two young Kachin Baptist women in Myanmar by soldiers in the Burmese Army.
Maran Lu Ra, 20, and Tangbau Hkawn Nan Tsin, 21, were teachers working with the Kachin Baptist Convention in the Shabuk Kawhnghka village in northern Shan State, Myanmar. The women were reportedly followed to their residence on campus during a short walk after attending the party of a 10-year-old child. Neighbors discovered their beaten and stabbed bodies the next day.
It marks the second time American Baptist Women’s Ministries has contacted the Secretary of State’s office calling for increased pressure on the government of Burma to end the use of rape as a weapon of war.
A recent report by the Women’s League of Burma documented 118 incidences of gang-rape, rape and attempted sexual assault that have been documented in Burma since 2010, carried out with “de facto impunity” to demoralize ethnic minorities and plunder Myanmar’s valuable natural resources.
Virginia Holstrom, executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries, associate executive director Sandra DeMott Hasenauer, and President Patricia Stratton, wrote Jan. 22 urging the U.S. government to uphold its commitment to human rights by pressuring Burma to reform its laws, investigate reports of sexual violence by the military and improve the overall plight of women.
“We commend the State Department for its attention to democratic reform in Burma and its stated commitment to human rights issues,” they said. “However, we urge increased attention to human rights reforms in Burma, and the cessation of the use of rape as a weapon of war, as the United States continues forward in economic agreements with the government of Burma.”
Holmstrom sent a separate letter with numerous signatures Jan. 27 to the director of Kachin Baptist Convention Women’s Department expressing condolences to the women’s families and “our love and concern to our Kachin sisters and brothers in Myanmar Baptist congregation.”
Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, shared news of the atrocity in an open letter prior to leaving Jan. 27 for nearly a month in a delegation to Thailand and Burma with Jim Winkler, general secretary of the National Council of Churches.
“While in both countries we shall meet with Baptist leaders, members of the councils of churches, U.S. embassy officials, U.N. staff, and political leaders, as we continue to press for the cause of religious liberty and human rights within Burma with the ceasing of violence by the military against our brothers and sisters in Christ,” Medley pledged.