BANGKOK (AP) — A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority was released from prison earlier this week, a member of a Kachin peace organization said Wednesday.
The Rev. Hkalam Samson was first arrested in December 2022. In April last year he was handed a six-year prison term after being convicted of unlawful association, incitement and counter-terrorism. He was released in April of this year under a general amnesty but detained again just a few hours later.
Samson, a former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention, also chairs the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, an umbrella organization uniting religious and civil society groups with political organizations promoting Kachin rights, including autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
The state, in northern Myanmar, has been the scene of intermittent warfare for decades between the army and well-organized and well-armed Kachin guerrillas.
Samson had been held for 16 months in the prison in Myitkyina township, the Kachin state capital, until his initial release in mid-April this year under an amnesty covering 3,300 prisoners across the country to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday.
However, just hours after his release, he was taken into custody again.
Two days after Samson was detained for the second time, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson of the ruling military council, said in an interview with the BBC’s Burmese-Language service that he had not been rearrested but was taken in “for cooperation and discussion about the peace process.”
Lamai Gwanja, a leading member of the Kachin-based Peace-talk Creation Group, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Samson was released from the prison compound at 11:30 a.m. on Monday.
“He was released after living at a house in the prison compound,” Lamai Gwanja said by phone. “He had not been rearrested, but was called in for a short time for discussion of the peace issue, and after three months, he was released.”
He added, however, that Samson did not take part in any activity related to peace talks during the period of his detention.
Samson could not be contacted for comment.
Samson is a prominent advocate of the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar, and in 2019 was part of a delegation that met then-U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the military’s abuse of ethnic minorities.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement released on Tuesday that Washington welcomes Samson’s release.
“We are pleased that he is finally able to return home to his family and continue his important work,” Miller said.
Christians make up about 6% of Myanmar’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population, but about 34% of Kachin’s estimated 1.7 million population.
Human rights groups have said minority religions including Christians have been significantly persecuted in Myanmar since an army takeover in 2021, when the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and suppressed nonviolent protests, triggering armed resistance that has led to civil war.
Kachin guerrillas have played a large role in the resistance movement uniting armed ethnic minority groups with pro-democracy fighters who organized against military rule.
