Emotional encounter for Pope, Rohingya refugees
DHAK A, BANGL ADESH • Pope Francis asked for forgiveness Friday from refugees in Bangladesh for all the hurt and persecution they have endured, demanded their rights be recognized and pronounced the word he had so assiduously avoided only days earlier in Myanmar: “Rohingya.”
In a deeply moving encounter, Francis greeted and blessed a group of Rohingya Muslim refugees, grasping their hands and listening to their stories in a show of public solidarity amid Asia’s worst refugee crisis in decades. He apologized for the “indifference of the world” to their plight and then pronounced the name of their ethnic group to a gathering of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Christian leaders.
“The presence of God today is also called ‘Rohingya,’ ” he said.
The 16 Rohingya — 12 men, two women and two young girls — had travelled to Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar where refugee camps are overflowing with more than 620,000 Rohingya who have fled what the UN says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s military.
The campaign has included the burning of Rohingya villages and fleeing Roh- ingya have described rape and shootings by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs that left them no option but to make the dangerous and sometimes deadly journey through jungles and by sea to Bangladesh.
The Myanmar government has denied any such campaign is underway. The army says “clearance operations” are targeting militants who attacked security positions in August.
Myanmar’s government and most of the Buddhist majority recoil from the term “Rohingya,” saying the members of the Muslim minority are “Bengalis” who migrated illegally from Bangladesh. Myanmar doesn’t acknowledge them as a local ethnic group and won’t give them citizenship, even though they have lived in Myanmar for generations.
Francis’ encounter with the refugees was the highlight of his day that began with a Mass to ordain 16 new priests.
Bangladesh’s tiny Catholic community represents a fraction of 1 per cent of the majority Muslim population of 160 million. Despite its small size, the Catholic Church runs a network of schools, orphanages and clinics and has enjoyed relative freedom in its work, though Christian missionaries say they have received threats.
Late in the day, the Catholic community received welcome news: A Catholic priest who had gone missing on the eve of Francis’ arrival was found in a northeastern district and was returned to Dhaka.
Khairul Fazal, a local police chief in Sylhet, said the Rev. Walter William Rosario was picked up at a bus counter. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to him, but earlier reports suggested he might have been kidnapped given his family reported receiving ransom calls.
THE PRESENCE OF GOD TODAY IS ALSO CALLED ‘ROHINGYA.’