To garner maximum support during the elections in the pre-dominantly Christian Kachin State, the Burmese military junta is attempting to mobilize and woo Christian leaders.

On September 24 the regime’s newly appointed Northern Regional Commander Brig-Gen Zeyar Aung held a meeting with Christian church leaders at St. Columban’s Catholic Cathedral in Aung Nan Yint Ta in Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State.

Commander Zeyar Aung spoke of freedom to worship in a democratic system, when in actual terms such freedom is hard to come by in military ruled Burma.

“All religions have freedom to worship in keeping with democracy,” the commander was quoted as saying by participants.

The meeting was attended by different church leaders and elders totaling about 500 people. The idea behind the meeting was to motivate the church leaders to get the support of the people for regime-backed political parties in the election.

The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is into many tactics to get votes. It is using force and also using former ethnic armed groups, which transformed to the Border Guard Force (BGF) and People’s Militia Groups under the Burmese Army.

The Northern Commander, who replaced Maj-Gen Soe Win, has held meetings at least twice with Christian leaders since he took over.

Earlier, Maj-Gen Soe Win had held meetings with Christian leaders to persuade the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military-wing of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to accept the BGF and not to oppose the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam construction, which will bring billions of dollars in profits from electricity sold to China.