The new ADSL Internet system of the Kachin Theological College (KTC) was inaugurated by Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, the Minister of Communication, Post and Telegraph of the Burmese junta on September 5, said KTC insiders.

The permission to install ADSL internet in KTC was specially granted by Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, who is also the junta's chief organizer of Kachin State. He also gifted 10 sacks of rice, two barrels of cooking oil, two sacks of chick-pea and 10 dozen books, said school sources.

During the inaugural ceremony, Rev. Dr. Saga Hkyen Naw, the principal of KTC delivered a short speech of gratitude to the Minister Thein Zaw for sanctioning the school's much-needed internet, according to participants.

KTC operates under the aegis of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), which represents over 400,000 followers in the military-ruled county and it is one of biggest Christian Theological Colleges in northern Burma.

One of the students from KTC told KNG over telephone that Brig-Gen Thein Zaw even made a clarification to KTC students on the problems between the Northeast Shan State-based Kokang ceasefire group known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Burmese troops in August.

Commenting on the minister’s gesture, KTC students said “It is just a sign of organizing and compromising for the sake of maintaining peace in the forthcoming elections in 2010.”

The military offensive by Burmese troops on Kokang territory on August 24 triggered fresh military and political tensions between the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO), an ally of the Kokang and the Burmese military junta, said KIO sources.

Moreover, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw will visit Danai (also spelled Tanai) town in Hokawng Valley in western Kachin State for attending the opening ceremony of the internet system as the communication infrastructure is going as planned, said a resident.

Last month, Minister Brig-Gen Thein Zaw gifted 200 sacks of cement to the Shatapru Kachin Baptist Church in Myitkyina without the Church asking for it, said the Church sources.

Since mid 2007, Minister Thein Zaw has targeted Kachin Churches and Church leaders in different denominations and he donated funds, rice, edible oil, granted landline phones, GSM mobile phones and other construction materials to woo Christian voters.

Among Kachin Churches, the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and Roman Catholic Churches and Church leaders have been mainly mobilized by Brig-Gen Thein Zaw.

But, some local critics said, any Church or its leader, who accepts any gift from the brutal military junta, is going against the teaching of the Christian Bible and it is akin to "supporting Satan or taking gifts from Satan – in this case the Burmese ruling junta".