Pope heads to Bangladesh with Rohingya crisis looming large

YANGON (AP) — Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Myanmar yesterday with a mass for young people before heading to neighboring Bangladesh where the Muslim Rohingya refugee crisis was expected to take center stage.

Francis has so far refrained from speaking out about Asia’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades out of diplomatic deference to his hosts in Myanmar, who consider the Rohingya as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh and don’t recognize them as their own ethnic group.

The Vatican has defended Francis’ silence, saying the pope wants to “build bridges” with the predominantly Buddhist nation. But human rights groups and Rohingya themselves have expressed disappointment that Francis, an advocate for refugees and the world’s most marginal, refrained from condemning what the UN has said is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Francis took seriously the advice given to him by the local Catholic Church, which urged him to toe a cautious line and not even refer to the “Rohingya” by name during his trip.

“You can criticize what’s said, what’s not said, but the pope is not going to lose moral authority on this question here,” Burke told reporters on Wednesday.

Rohingya have faced persecution and discrimination in Myanmar for decades and are denied citizenship, even though many families have lived there for generations. The situation grew worse in August when the army began what it called clearance operations in northern Rakhine state following attacks on security positions by Rohingya militants.

More than 620,000 Rohingya have since poured into refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where they have described indiscriminate attacks by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist mobs, including killings, rapes and the torching of entire villages.