POPE CALLS TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS BUT SIDESTEPS ROHINGYA ISSUE
He skips mention of ‘Rohingya’ to avoid backlash
NAYPYIDAW
POPE Francis yesterday urged the leaders of Myanmar, mired in a crisis over the fate of Rohingya people, to commit themselves to justice, human rights and respect for “each ethnic group and its identity”.
The pope avoided a diplomatic backlash by not using the highly charged term “Rohingya” in his addresses to officials, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
However, his words were applicable to members of the beleaguered minority, who Myanmar did not recognise as citizens. More than 620,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh, where the pope heads tomorrow.
The pope first met President Htin Kyaw, writing in the guest book at the presidential palace: “On all the beloved people in Myanmar, I invoke the divine blessings of justice, peace and unity.”
He then went into talks with Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and champion of democracy who had faced criticism because she doubted reports of rights abuses against the Rohingya and failed to condemn the military.
“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.
Myanmar rejects the term “Rohingya” and its use.
But before the diplomatically risky trip, his advisers recommended that he not use it in Myanmar, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country’s military and government against Christians.
Human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, had urged him to utter it.
A hardline group of Buddhist monks warned on Monday, without elaborating, that there would be “a response” if he spoke openly about the Rohingya.
Richard Horsey, a former United Nations official and analyst based in Yangon, said the pope’s speech was “very cautiously worded” and “crafted to avoid antagonising local audiences”.
“He has clearly taken the advice of his cardinals to avoid weighing in too heavily on the Rohingya crisis, but he certainly alludes to it with a message in his speech on some of the specific points that he makes.”
However, the pontiff's words were of little comfort to Rohingya stuck in Bangladesh.
“We are very much disappointed that he did not mention the Rohingya crisis,” said activist Mohammad Zubair in Kutupalong refugee camp, speaking of a religious leader who “even held prayers for the Rohingya”.
Vatican sources said some in the Holy See believed the trip was decided too hastily after full diplomatic ties were established in May during a visit by Suu Kyi.
The pope met privately with Suu Kyi at the presidential palace here and later, they made addresses at a conference centre.
Suu Kyi said there had been an erosion of trust and understanding between communities of Rakhine State, but did not refer to the Rohingya.
Referring to the country’s communal tensions, Francis said religious differences “need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building”.
He made the same point at an earlier meeting with leaders of the Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish and Christian faiths in Yangon.
Aye Lwin, a prominent Muslim leader at the interfaith meeting, said he had asked the pope to appeal to Myanmar’s political leaders “to rescue the religion that we cherish, which could be hijacked by a hidden agenda”.
Only about 700,000 of Myanmar’s 51 million people are Roman Catholic. Thousands of them have travelled from far and wide to see him, and more than 150,000 people had registered for a mass that Francis will say in Yangon today.