Open Letter to CSW’s Founder President Mr Mervyn Thomas who Ignore the Truth and Support Terrorist Acts

By Aung Shinn

IT might be wondered who wrote this open letter to Founder President Mr Mervyn Thomas of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). I am simply an ordinary citizen who loves our country and people. Particularly, I am an ordinary person who cannot accept one-sided accusations and pressure from international organizations and individuals, that aim our country and people to be in ruins.

We, the people, have seen the statement on Myanmar released by your CSW organ­ization on 4 November 2025. We wish to categorically deny that your statement is mere­ly unfounded and arbitrary allegations against the Gov­ernment of Myanmar and the Tatmadaw, and a propaganda document that lacks factual validity and impartiality.

You echo other people’s opinions, without truly under­standing the current political situation in Myanmar and the real circumstances on the ground. Instead, you rely only on incorrect information distorted by domestic as well as foreign destructive media and terrorist groups, according to their own agendas. Such undisciplined statements not only show dis­respect toward the country and its citizens but also amount to an insult that encourages and supports the terrorists who seek to disturb and destroy peace and stability.

Hence, this open letter is the voice of an ordinary citizen who actually lives inside My­anmar and is experiencing the violent acts by NUG, PDF and terrorist groups under the name of ethnic armed groups, aiming to respond to your groundless allegations.

First, what you need to un­derstand is that the conflicts and the destruction, as well as losses happening in the coun­try, are not because the organ­ization has been deliberately targeting civilians as you ac­cuse, but because the all-out destruction path pursued by terrorist groups, under the name of NUG, CRPH and PDF groups born by the extremist factions of the NLD party. They are making attempts to achieve their self-serving political goals through violent means. The in­ternational community already knows that terrorists are arbi­trarily killing any citizens who do not support them.

While your CSW organiza­tion is seriously expressing its deep concern about religious discrimination and lack of fairness, a question has been raised. Why don’t you say a sin­gle word about the civilians who were killed by terrorist groups?

Why doesn’t your research mention about 5,767 unarmed, innocent people who lost their lives because of the killings by terrorists?

Why do you ignore the cas­es of 88 Buddhist monks and two nuns who were killed by terrorists?

Why does your CSW organ­ization turn a blind eye to the terrorists’ killings of thousands of civil servants, including 78 teachers who teach the new generation and administrators?

Do the terrorists’ bombings and arson attacks against the 560 public schools, education buildings, bridges, hospitals and administrative offices fit any standards of your religious freedom?

Myanmar’s Tatmadaw is the nation’s legitimate defence institution, and it has the re­sponsibility to counter terrorist acts and to safeguard the lives, homes and property of all cit­izens from the terrorists’ acts of violence. All of the actions of the Tatmadaw are just sys­tematically conducting Coun­ter-Terrorism Operations in line with the Rules of Engagement (ROE). There is absolutely no discrimination or targeted at­tacks based on religion, as you accuse.

We, the people, will respond to your alleged statement pub­lished on 4 November, letting you know the right facts. Citing the FORB Network, you claimed that more than 220 Christian Churches were destroyed and 85 Christian monks were killed. It was a fraud.

You cited the Internation­al Humanitarian Law (IHL). However, you deliberately left off the part where IHL explicitly prohibits the use of places of worship for military purposes. In reality, in many conflict-af­fected areas, including Chin State, CNF, CNA, and PDF ter­rorist groups born by the NUG are deliberately committing crimes, such as “abusing re­ligious buildings as defensive posts,” “using as temporary barracks”, and “planting land­mines near places of worship”.

These CNF, CNA and PDF groups are disturbing the gov­ernment’s administrative mech­anism, destroying the lives, homes and property of peacea­ble civilians in Chin State. As a result, fighting has broken out in regions where there had been no rebellion in successive eras. In other words, these clashes are broken out by the misguided political ego of the NUG group, which attempts to achieve its political goals through violent armed means. These battles are not caused by the Tatmad­aw’s military operations. The Tatmadaw is just attacking ter­rorist insurgents to deter the terrorists’ violent acts against unarmed civilians and to restore the rule of law and stability.

The Tatmadaw has never wantonly targeted or attacked any religious buildings. The damages are just the Unavoid­able Collateral Damage occur­ring within the battle zone, espe­cially because terrorist groups attack the Tatmadaw by employ­ing churches and pagodas for sheltering themselves.

You, who cited IHL, should understand the point that once a legally protected location is used as a military outpost, the place loses its protected sta­tus and becomes a legitimate military target. So, the real culprits responsible for the wreckage of churches are the terrorists themselves.

Freedom of religion is al­ready guaranteed under Section 34 of the Constitution of Myan­mar. The following is a list of re­ligious buildings that belong to religions other than Buddhism, which is a special position in Myanmar, for your awareness.

In accordance with the Con­stitution, everyone has the free­dom of religious right to practice their own religion, including Buddhism. The government, led by the current Acting President and State Security and Peace Commission (SSPC) Chairman of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, attends various re­ligious festivals, depending on the time free from work.

However, terrorists are taking advantage of religious festivals in urban areas. They deliberately attempt to carry out acts of violence and bombings by taking shelter among crowds, neighbourhoods and churches.

Consequently, relevant administrative officials are carrying out necessary secu­rity checks and temporary re­straints to protect the lives of the people. This is not targeting Christianity. It is solely to pre­vent the acts of terrorists and to provide the safety of worship­pers. Officials do not consider Christianity and Islam as foes, but consider the terrorists as enemies.

Among your accusations, the easily verifiable falsehood is the claim regarding the Manda­lay earthquake that struck on 28 March 2025. You have accused that the order stating that “the collapsed Christian Churches and mosques may only be re­built in their original form” is discriminatory. Again, you have portrayed this restriction as the reason why many long-standing Christian Churches have col­lapsed to the ground.

I seriously object that your allegation is totally incorrect. The earthquake affected people of all religions. The Mandalay earthquake that struck on 28 March did not selectively target or discriminate against people and buildings based on religion. Your research intentionally left off the damage to Mandalay’s world-renowned Buddhist her­itage. The Kuthodaw Pagoda, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site, suffered severe destruc­tion. Likewise, many significant Buddhist sites, including the Shwegugyi Temple, Mae Nu Oak Kyaung (Mae Nu Brick Monastery) and the Mingun Pagoda, were also heavily dam­aged.

Reconstruction efforts are for everyone. The Gov­ernment and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture have preserved, repaired, and reconstructed more than 1,700 damaged ancient structures. The term ‘in their original form’ is an international standard. The policy for rebuilding in the original form that you accuse of being a discriminatory restric­tion is, in fact, not discrimina­tory at all. It is an international standard for historical preser­vation, to be applied equally to Buddhism, Christianity, and Is­lamic heritage alike, in line with the guidelines by the experts of international heritage-pres­ervation organization such as UNESCO and the Internation­al Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), to ensure that the value of ancient heritages is not destroyed.

Since you intentionally distorted the point and incited religious conflict, it is vividly proven that the CSW group’s goal is not targeted at unity but at disintegration.

In addition to accusations, the points you stated under the guise of demands reveal a colo­nial mindset, as if you want to control the sovereign nation’s internal affairs from afar.

Among your demands, the most unacceptable, insulting remark is that you called for the immediate repeal of the Peo­ple’s Military Service Law that came into force in 2024.

What Mr Mervyn Thomas needs to understand is that the People’s Military Service Law is legally enacted and officially approved in line with Sections 385 and 386 of the Constitution of Myanmar. It is not, as you accuse, a tool of persecution. It is simply a public military ser­vice law similar to those prac­tised not only in neighbouring ASEAN countries but also in nations around the world. This law is implemented as needed in accordance with the current situation for national defence.

Does your CSW organi­zation have the courage to demand that countries like South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and Israel repeal their conscription laws? Or, are you simply trying to inter­fere in Myanmar’s politics by taking sides? You must clear­ly understand that it is not allowed/there is no tolerance for interruption and inter­ference by any international organization or individual to repeal a law granted by the Constitution of a sovereign nation.

Your facade of humanity completely disappears in your final demand. You asked that fuel supplies for Myanmar’s Tatmadaw should be targeted and cut off. This is not a demand for humanitarian aid, but a de­mand for military affairs.

Your genuine purpose is to undermine the air capabil­ities of Myanmar’s Tatmadaw, which is crushing the terrorist groups, and to provide cover for the terrorists.

Subsequently, you request­ed aid for the direct flow to local civil society organizations. In reality, you revealed that you were attempting to bypass the legitimate government and channel illegal funds and sup­plies to NUG/PDF-affiliated groups.

Because of your actions, the CSW group must be re­garded as a group masquer­ading as a religious organ­ization, and you must be regarded as a supporter of terrorism and is interfering in the internal affairs of a sov­ereign nation. You, Western bloc-affiliated media outlets and INGOs alike are com­pletely disconnected from the genuine will of the peo­ple. The genuine desires of the majority of citizens living in the country are not to be imposed by your sanction or your interference.

The genuine desire of the people is to end the ter­rorist acts of the NUG/PDF terrorist groups, such as the killing of innocent civilians, the arson attacks on schools, and the mine attacks against roads, bridges, as quickly as possible. What we want is to end the violent acts and to have peaceful, stable and hap­py family lives.

You claim your CSW group is a religious organization. However, you are: interfering in the internal affairs of a sover­eign nation; inflaming political conflict through religion; and providing indirect support to terrorist groups. Here, I would like to remind you that such actions can greatly damage the CSW group’s reputation.

Witnessing your actions, you can be regarded as a sup­porter of terrorists from an or­dinary citizen’s point of view. Accordingly, we, the ordinary people, call for an end to your false allegations against the Government as well as the Tat­madaw, an end to your support for acts of terrorism, and a re­spect for Myanmar’s sovereign­ty. Through this letter, we also want to make it clear to you and the international community that “the Government of My­anmar has fully legal authority to respond to any actions that encroach on the sovereignty of the nation”.

(This article is solely the view of a citizen who values Myanmar’s sovereignty, peace and stability, and it has no re­lation to religion.)