December 15, 2022) Elizabeth Kendal requests urgent prayer for the following…

+ BURMA (MYANMAR): CHRISTIAN LEADER ARRESTED

Junta officials have arrested and are preparing to prosecute one of Burma’s most significant and influential religious leaders and human rights advocates. A former chairman of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), the Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson (pictured right in 2019) currently serves as chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (WMR), a group comprised of Kachin religious, political and civil society leaders. In 2019, Dr Samson travelled to Washington, DC to participate in the International Religious Freedom Ministerial Conference. Invited to the White House, he spoke with President Trump about the Burmese military’s religious oppression of ethnic minorities. On his return the military’s Northern Command attempted to open a lawsuit against him but was ultimately forced to drop the case.

Detention
Dr Hkalam Samson was detained on Sunday December 4, at Mandalay International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Bangkok where he was to receive medical treatment. He was held and interrogated overnight at Central Military Headquarters, before being put on a flight back to Kachin State. On his arrival at Myitkyina Airport, Dr Samson was arrested and taken away by officers of the junta’s Northern Regional Military Command.