Pope visits Myanmar
> His speeches will be scrutinised for ‘R’ word
YANGON: Pope Francis arrived in Myanmar yesterday on a highly sensitive visit to a country facing sharp global criticism for the alleged ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya Muslim minority.
Catholics in colourful ethnic traditional dress waved flags and danced at Yangon’s airport in a joyful welcome for the pope.
The pope’s four-day visit intensifies pressure on Myanmar over its treatment of the stateless minority, a group he has called his “brothers and sisters” in repeated entreaties to ease their plight.
His speeches will be scrutinised by hardliners for any mention of the word “Rohingya”, an incendiary term in a country where the Muslim group are reviled and labelled “Bengalis” – alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
He will meet civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose lustre has faded because of her failure to speak up publicly for the Rohingya.
The pope will also hold talks with army chief Min Aung Hlaing – a meeting between a religious leader who has championed the rights of refugees and the man accused of overseeing the brutal campaign to drive out the Rohingya.
Speaking to a crowd of 30,000 in St Peter’s Square, shortly before he left Rome, the pontiff said: “I ask you to be with me in prayer so that, for these peoples, my presence is a sign of affinity and hope.”
Myanmar’s estimated 700,000 Catholics make up just over 1% of the country’s 51 million people and are scattered in far-flung corners of the nation.
Around 200,000 Catholics are pouring into commercial capital Yangon ahead of a huge open-air mass tomorrow.
“We are ready to welcome the Pope cheerfully ... with pure hearts,” a woman from Kachin said, one of hundreds waiting near the archbishop’s residence in Yangon. But the Rohingya crisis frames the visit. The army insists its Rakhine operation was a proportionate response to Rohingya “terrorists” who raided police posts in late August.
But rights groups, the UN and the US have accused the army of using its operation as cover to drive out a minority it has oppressed for decades.
That is at odds with views inside the country.
“The vast majority of people in Myanmar do not believe the international narrative of abuse against the Rohingya and the refugee numbers that we’re seeing in Bangladesh,” Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey said.
“If the pope did come and weigh in heavily on this issue, it would inflame tensions and it would inflame public sentiment,” he said. – AFP