Myanmar cardinal urges Pope Francis to avoid use of the term ‘Rohingya’

YANGON: Myanmar’s most senior Catholic prelate has urged Pope Francis to avoid using the term ‘ Rohingya’ during a visit this month, when he is expected to raise the humanitarian crisis faced by the Muslim minority after a Myanmar army offensive in August.

The pope is set to visit largely Buddhist Myanmar from Nov 27 to Nov 30, before going to Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim neighbour where more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to take shelter in refugee camps.

In the first visit by a pope to Myanmar, Francis will meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who leads a civilian administration that is less than two years old, the generals it has to share power with, as well as leading Buddhist monks.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo told Reuters the pope would raise the need to provide assistance to the Muslim minority, saying, “These are people who are suffering and these are the people in need of help now.”

Francis has used the term Rohingya when he has spoken about their suffering in the recent past. But Suu Kyi has asked foreign leaders not to use the term Rohingya, because in her view it is inflammatory.

Bo, appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 as Myanmar’s first and only cardinal, said church leaders in the country had advised him to sidestep the divisive issue of the name.

“We have asked him at least to refrain from using the word ‘ Rohingya’ because this word is very much contested and not acceptable by the military, nor the government, nor the people in Myanmar,” Bo said in an interview in Yangon. — Reuters