A pastor who has been missing for over two months after being arrested by the armed forces is rumoured to have died in a detention centre.
Ngai Cong of the Brothers Church in Matupi Township disappeared a week after the Burma Army (BA) arrested him after an engagement with the Chinland Defence Force between Phanai and Ngalai villages on 23 September.
“He had photos of a good hunting rifle on his phone and the soldiers found them when they checked his and another villager’s mobile phone,” says a man who is a friend of Ngai Cong.
The pastor and the other person were taken to BA’s main camp in Matupi town. The soldiers released the other villager but detained Ngai Cong and refused visits from family and friends.
The pastor’s wife and their three children have fled to the Indian state of Mizoram.
“After his arrest, pastors from different churches prepared talks with military officials through the General Administration Development, but they did not take place and I do not know why,” said another source requesting anonymity.
Friends said the pastor, a member of the COVID-19 Control Committee for Matupi Township, was not involved with the civilian resistance groups.
“The BA has not informed his family of his death, but our army sources said the soldiers have already killed Pastor Ngai Cong,” says Salai Tera, the field director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO).
According to CHRO, the army has killed at least three civilians in detention centres in Chin State. One of them was Pu Ral Cung, a 24-year-old from Nee Yang Lawng village, Hakha Township, who was arrested on 12 October. The military informed his family of his death on 9 November, but refused to return Pu Ral Cung’s body. The BA also killed Talan Lane and Kham Bwi, both from Hakha town, after they were arrested in May. They told their family they died of COVID-19 and could not return the bodies because they cremated them.
Salai Tera said if the rumour is true then Ngai Cong would be the fourth person to die in a detention centre in the state.
“The Burma Army is deliberately killing civilians… These are war crimes and crimes against humanity—it must stop.”