Pope appeals to Burmese for justice but avoids saying ‘Rohingya’
HUMAN rights groups and Rohingya activists expressed disappointment after Pope Francis avoided publicly referencing persecution of the Muslim minority group in a speech to Burma’s ruling elite.
The Pope called for “justice and a respect for human rights” in an address to officials including Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader, in the capital city of Naypyidaw yesterday.
But in apparent deference to Burmese diplomatic sensitivities, he did not use the word “Rohingya” or mention allegations of ethnic cleansing.
“The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity, respect for the rule of law, and respect for a democratic order that enables each individual and every group – none excluded – to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good,” he said in a broadly framed address.
Francis landed in Yangon on Monday to kick off a week-long trip to Burma and Bangladesh, which both have small Catholic minorities.
Burma is home to around 700,000 Catholics and the Pope is due to give an open-air mass attended by up to 200,000 people today.
The diplomatically sensitive trip was planned before the outbreak of the Rohingya refugee crisis three months ago.
A military crackdown against the Muslim minority in Burma’s northwestern Rakhine state has led to 620,000 people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh since August.
Refugees have described fleeing a systematic campaign of house burnings, rape and murder by Burmese soldiers and civilian vigilantes who say they are carrying out counter terrorist operations against a Rohingya insurgent group.
The UN and Western governments have described the campaign against the Rohingya Muslims as an example of “textbook ethnic cleansing”.
The Pope has previously spoken out in defence of the Rohingya, and he has faced pressure to use this trip to confront Ms Suu Kyi and Burma’s military over the violence in Rakhine states.
However, Vatican aides are understood to have advised him to avoid using the term “Rohingya”, which the Burmese government and nationalist groups do not recognise, in case it triggers a backlash that could affect the country’s Christian minority.
Rohingya activists expressed “disap- pointment” but said they hoped he would attempt to press Ms Suu Kyi in private.
Tun Khin, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said: “We are sad to see him not using the word when Burma is denying the Rohingya identity. It just makes their narrative stronger. It is genocide, what is going on. He should, and I am sure he will, raise the issue in private and put pressure on the Burmese military and government anyhow.
“The Pope missed an important opportunity to speak truth to power,” said Phil Robertson, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “The fact that the word ‘Rohingya’ is so contentious shows the lengths to which Myanmar has gone to demonise a desperately poor and repressed religious minority.”
The Pope is expected to meet a Rohingya delegation in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, later this week.