6-8pm, Tuesday 23 January, 2007

Wilson Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) will be launching a major new report on the persecution of Christians in Burma.

The report identifies a range of tactics used by the military regime to suppress Christianity and cites a document, allegedly from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which has been widely circulated in Rangoon with the headline “Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma”. It begins: “There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised.”

The meeting will be chaired by John Bercow MP. The report will be presented by CSW’s Advocacy Officer for South Asia and author of the report, Benedict Rogers, and a delegation of Chin and Kachin activists from Burma will present evidence of human rights violations.

The report’s author, CSW’s Advocacy Officer for South Asia Benedict Rogers, says: “It is time that the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution on Burma calling for an end to the grotesque human rights violations perpetrated by the regime. We urge the United Nations to investigate the violations of religious freedom in Burma and to put pressure on the regime to change. Burma’s people, of all religions and ethnicities, have suffered in silence for too long.”

For more information and a copy of the report, or to arrange interviews with the author or with a Chin or Kachin spokesman, please contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0045, email pennyhollings@csw.org.uk  or visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organisation which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.