Diplomatic test for pope
Rights groups urge Francis to speak up on ‘Rohingya’ plight
The pontiff on Monday begins a visit to Myanmar, scene of one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises.
BANGKOK — In August, responding to the first reports of Rohingya Muslims fleeing an army-led crackdown in Myanmar, Pope Francis called for prayers for “our Rohingya brethren.”
“Let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of goodwill to help them, who shall give them their full rights,” Francis told a gathering of pilgrims at Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square.
As the pope begins a visit Monday to Myanmar, the Rohingyas’ plight has spiraled into one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises. More than 600,000 people have fled to Bangladesh to escape a systematic campaign of killing, rape and arson that U.N. officials and international human rights groups have described as ethnic cleansing.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed that assessment Wednesday after a visit to Myanmar, saying that “no provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities” carried out by security forces and Buddhist vigilantes against the Rohingya.
Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, has portrayed himself as a champion of the downtrodden and of interfaith dialogue, and has repeatedly voiced concern for the Rohingya. He faces perhaps the most delicate diplomatic task of his fouryear papacy in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, where the military establishment and a civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi refuse to list the Rohingya among the country’s 135 ethnic groups, claiming that they migrated illegally from Bangladesh.
While in Myanmar, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the Catholic archbishop of the largest city, Yangon, has advised the pope not to utter the word “Rohingya,” a term that Suu Kyi and the generals do not acknowledge.
But human rights groups are urging Francis — both in his public sermons and private meetings with Suu Kyi and the commander of the military, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing — to use the term to show solidarity with a group that Myanmar has denied citizenship and methodically stripped of basic rights, including the freedom to move, work and marry.
In a video message, Francis said, “I wish to visit the nation in a spirit of respect and encouragement for every effort to build harmony and cooperation in the service of the common good.”
Before the military crackdown, an estimated 1 million Rohingya lived in the western state of Rakhine, many confined to displacement camps patrolled by security forces.
“He should use the word Rohingya, and he should use it publicly, because the Rohingya have very little left besides their identity,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
Francis will follow his three-day visit to Myanmar with two days in Bangladesh, where the Vatican said he would meet with a small group of Rohingya refugees in the capital, Dhaka.
The Vatican announced the first apostolic visit to Myanmar — where an estimated 700,000 Roman Catholics make up slightly more than 1 percent of the population — just as the extent of the military campaign against the Rohingya was becoming clear.
Despite the election of the first civilian government in 2015, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, the army retains total control over security matters and wields tremendous influence behind the scenes. An adviser to Suu Kyi who sought to curtail the military’s powers was shot dead this year under mysterious circumstances.
Suu Kyi, who became an icon for leading the opposition to military rule, has sided with the army against the Rohingya, damaging her image worldwide. But many Myanmar citizens believe the army crackdown was justified after a Rohingya militant group carried out deadly attacks against security forces.