Ten members of a rebel group have been arrested in the stabbing death of a Catholic priest last week in the Myanmar’s northwestern Sagaing region, the country’s government-in-exile said.
Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, 44, is believed to be the first Catholic priest killed in the conflict that erupted four years ago when the military ousted the elected government in a February 2021 coup.
He was attacked on Feb. 14 in the compound of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Kan Gyi Taw village in Shwebo township, which is about 65 km (40 miles) north of Mandalay, the National Unity Government, or NUG, said in a statement Monday.
The 10 suspects were captured by the Shwebo branch of its armed People’s Defense Force and members of other local rebel groups on the day of the killing.
NUG was established by pro-democracy politicians after the 2021 coup and is Myanmar’s main opposition organization.
Because the suspects are members of local defense forces, the NUG’s shadow Defense Ministry is conducting a court-martial, it said Monday.
Christians make up about 6 percent of Myanmar’s population, while some 90 percent are Buddhists.
Suspected informer
NUG said it “strongly condemns any acts of targeting civilians, including religious leaders.”
The statement didn’t include a reason for the attack, but Myanmar Now reported that Ye Naing Win was suspected of being an informer for the military junta.
Sagaing, a heartland region populated largely by members of the majority Burman community, has been torn by violence since democracy activists set up the defense forces to battle the military after the 2021 coup.
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Cardinal Charles Bo, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, said he hoped Ye Naing Win’s death and “the blood and sacrifices” of other innocent people could serve as “an offering to ending the violence that is occurring throughout the nation.”
“Learning from these heartbreaking experiences that we have encountered, may the fraternal spirit be awakened, and we earnestly appeal for an end to the violence,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
“The wrongdoing committed against Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win is not something that can be easily forgotten.”
Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.