For centuries, the Kachin, who number about 1,600,000, lived in relative peace in the northern Myanmar mountains near the border with China. After Myanmar gained independence from the British in 1948, they were promised equality and self determination. Today Guardian paper says that Kachin face slow genocide. China in the past used to allow the survivors to cross over to China but it no longer allows that freedom, trapping the displaced people.

Historically, Burma was never a country but a group of kingdoms. Kachin people had their own kingdom for centuries. Currently, 40% of the population of Burma are minorities and 60% are Burman. American Baptists brought Christianity to Burma in the early nineteenth century.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report on Christian persecution in Myanmar. They concluded that Christians in Burma at the hands of Buddhist nationalists are facing:

• Discrimination in employment
• Forced conversions
• Violence and desecration of churches in their communities.
• Mass displacement from their lands.
  
• More than 300 Christian churches have been destroyed in Burma’s Kachin state, where the country’s Christian population is concentrated.
• Hundreds and thousands of civilians, mostly Christian, have fled and sought refuge from the onslaught.
• Most of the refugees in the United States are Christian survivors of persecution. 

Now the Burmese military has warned the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) to halt humanitarian work for the displaced people.