Burma's Oppressed Christians Backed Protests
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
October 05, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - As the military crackdown in Burma continues to generate debate and concern around the world, away from the headlines ethnic minority Christians also have demonstrated their opposition to the regime in small but significant ways.

The Karen, one of scores of minority groups in Burma, are an indigenous agricultural hill tribe in the country's southeast, near the frontier with Thailand. Karen insurgents have been fighting for autonomy for more than half a century.An estimated 30-40 percent of the Karen are Christians.

Annual State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom regularly cite rights abuses by the military against the Karen and other minorities, both Christian and Muslim, including attempts to promote Buddhism over other religions. About five percent of Burma's 47 million people are Christian, and about four percent Muslim. the rest