Pope criticised for not using word ‘Rohingya’ to Suu Kyi and Myanmarese officials

HUMAN rights groups and Rohingya activists expressed disappointment after Pope Francis avoided publicly referencing persecution of the Muslim minority group in a speech to Myanmar’s ruling elite.

Pope Francis called for “justice and a respect for human rights” in an address to Myanmar officials including Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader, in the capital city Naypyidaw yesterday.

But in apparent deference to Myanmar’s diplomatic sensitivities, he did not use the word ‘Rohingya’ or mention allegations that the Myanmar military is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against them.

“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.

Pope Francis landed in Yangon on Monday to kick off a week-long trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, which both have small Catholic minorities.

Myanmar is home to around 700,000 Catholics. Francis 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 Myanmar’s north-western Rakhine state has sent more than 620,000 people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh since August.

Refugees have described fleeing a campaign of house burnings, rape, and murder by Myanmarese soldiers and civilian vigilantes who say they are carrying out counterterrorist operations against a Rohingya insurgent group.

The Myanmar military says it is conducting an operation against a Rohingya insurgent group that killed several servicemen in August.

The United Nations and western governments have described the campaign against the Rohingya Muslims as an example of “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

Pope Francis has previously spoken out in defence of the Rohingya, and he has faced pressure to use this trip to confront Ms Suu Kyi and Myanmar’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 Myanmarese government and nationalist groups do not recognise, in case it triggers a backlash that could affect the country’s Christian minority.

Rohingya activists expressed “disappointment” but said they hoped he would attempt to press Ms Suu Kyi in private.

Tun Khin, the president of the Myanmar Rohingya Organisation UK, said: “We are sad to see him not using the word when [Myanmar] is denying the Rohingya identity.

“It just makes their narrative stronger.

“It is genocide, what is going on. He should raise the issue in private and put pressure on the Myanmarese military and government,” he added.

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority who speak a dialect of Bengali and live in Rakhine state, a remote province on the border with Bangladesh.

Burmese nationalists argue that most of the Muslim minority in the area are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and that the term Rohingya is fabricated.

‘Peace must be based on respect for each ethnic group’