Vatican defends pope over Rohingya stance
YANGON, Myanmar — The Vatican on Wednesday defended Pope Francis after human rights groups expressed disappointment that he didn’t publicly acknowledge the plight of Rohingya Muslims, who have been subject to what the United Nations has termed a campaign of “textbook ethnic cleansing” by Myanmar’s military.
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 to Myanmar and Bangladesh, since the majority of people in Myanmar reject the term because the ethnic group is not a recognized minority in the country.
“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 said Wednesday. Burke spoke as Francis neared the midpoint of his weeklong trip, which was in the works well before the Myanmar military launched what it called “clearance operations” in Rakhine state in response to attacks by a group of Rohingya militants against security positions in August. The campaign, denounced by the United Nations and the U.S. as “ethnic cleansing,” has forced more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in the worst Asian refugee crisis in decades. Rohingya in the camps have reported entire villages in Myanmar being burned and looted and women and girls raped.
In the past, Francis has strongly condemned the “persecution of our Rohingya brothers,” denounced their suffering because of their faith and called for them to receive “full rights.” And he has defined his papacy by his outspoken defense of refugees and advocacy for society’s most marginal and disenfranchised. Though he called in his first major speech on Tuesday for all of Myanmar’s ethnic groups to have their human rights respected, his failure to specify the Rohingya crisis on Myanmar soil drew criticism from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Rohingya themselves.
Burke and senior members of Myanmar’s Catholic Church spoke to reporters after Francis had a busy day stressing a message of forgiveness, unity and healing of old wounds during an openair Mass, an audience with Myanmar’s senior Buddhist monks and during an encounter with his own Catholic bishops.
Local authorities estimated that about 150,000 people turned out for the Mass, but the crowd seemed far larger and included faithful bearing flags from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, among other places. Nicole Winfield is an Associated Press writer.