A local informant allegedly alerted authorities that Win Tin was hiding and supplying weapons to rebels throughout the country, CNA was told.
But the only weapons soldiers found were two unsharpened, ceremonial swords given to the archbishop to commemorate his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Banmaw last year, sources said.
“I think these so-called informants won’t be trusted again and thus we won’t have a repeat of this terror,” pointed out a local parishioner.
Banmaw is the traditional home of the Kachin, a large and fervent Catholic population. The confiscated swords were less than two feet long and made of untempered steel, rendering them worthless as actual weapons.
When no actual weapons turned up, the soldiers left and raided several local mosques also in the Tamil neighborhood, repeating the same threatening behavior. However, troops remained outside the cathedral compound in a show of force to quell any possible response from the local citizenry.
Another priest of the archdiocese, relieved that the soldiers had departed with minimal impact to the Faithful and the local community, spoke to CNA under condition of anonymity.
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