17 March is a significant date for the community of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the Banmaw diocese of Myanmar/Burma’s Kachin State.
It is, of course, the feast day of the church’s patron saint – a day of prayer and celebration in honour of one of the most revered figures in Catholic Church history.
This year, however, the community was unable to mark the occasion as they normally would have done, as on the evening of 16 March the cathedral was set on fire by soldiers from the State Administration Council (SAC), which falls under the authority of Myanmar’s ruling military junta.
Footage shared on Facebook shows the building engulfed in flames, with the cathedral’s Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam later reporting that while the cathedral and a new clergy house somehow remained standing, the rest of the compound was ‘reduced to ashes’.
More than places of worship
Military hostility towards the Christian community in Banmaw had been increasing for several weeks prior to the destruction of the cathedral. On 26 February junta forces set fire to the priest’s residence, a three-storey building that houses the diocesan offices, and a high school located on the cathedral grounds. On 3 March the military dropped two bombs and opened fire on a pastoral centre on the grounds of the Church of St. Michael in a rural part of the diocese, though mercifully no-one was killed or injured.
Such incidents have been commonplace ever since the military seized power in coup in February 2021, but the fact that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was targeted on the eve of such a significant day heightens the emotional and symbolic significance of the attack, and once again highlights the junta’s outright remorselessness.
In many situations of conflict, religious buildings serve as more than just places of worship, often functioning as vital sanctuaries for displaced civilians seeking refuge amid ongoing violence. The loss of these spaces not only takes away crucial cultural and spiritual foundations for communities, but also strips them of vital shelter and access to humanitarian assistance.
Speaking to Fides New Agency on the condition of anonymity, a local priest explained that sometimes the pretext under which the military targets such institutions is ‘that they are hiding places for the resistance forces. Other times, buildings are occupied by soldiers and then, once abandoned, they are destroyed out of pure contempt, leaving scorched earth behind.’
The intentional targeting of places of worship is a significant breach of international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention provides clear protections for religious and cultural institutions in times of armed conflict, and deliberate attacks on sacred spaces, especially those that provide sanctuary to civilians, are designated as war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
‘A litany of human suffering’
Of course, the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, is no stranger to breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates the military has killed over 6,400 people and arbitrarily arrested almost 29,000 others since the coup, disproportionately targeting religious minorities, particularly in Kachin and other Christian majority states such as Chin, Karen and Kanni States. In addition, over 22,000 political prisoners remain in detention, where they will likely face extreme psychological and physical abuse, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The junta has also weaponised rape and sexual violence as a tool of collective punishment, intensified digital repression to stifle independent reporting, and begun a devastating campaign of forced conscription targeting Myanmar’s youth which has forced many to flee the country. In February 2025 the UN reported that more than 3.5 million people had been displaced and 15 million were facing hunger amid what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights termed ‘a litany of human suffering’, and the earthquake of 28 March is likely only to exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation.
Meanwhile, the predominantly Muslim and legally stateless Rohingya community continues to wait for justice for the campaign of atrocities to which it was subjected in 2017, with tens of thousands of Rohingyas continuing to flee the country as clashes between the military and opposition armed groups have intensified.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity against Rohingyas, but he is yet and ultimately unlikely to be handed over as long as the military remains in power, and activists maintain that this represents only a fraction of the junta’s crimes regardless.
Time for decisive action
The international community must do more, chiefly by ensuring a full, co-ordinated and global embargo on the provision of funding, arms and aviation fuel to the military, complete with sanctions on states that violate this. It must also increase humanitarian support for the millions of Myanmar citizens in urgent need, and stand with and strengthen those within the country who continue to risk everything by calling for freedom, democracy and justice.
By CSW’s Press & Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley
Featured Image Credit: RVA Kachin Facebook.
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