Pope Francis has avoided referring to Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim minority by name in a major speech after meeting the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The leader of the world’s Roman Catholics urged reconciliation and “respect for each ethnic group and identity,” but did not specifically mention the Rohingya and their plight. Standing alongside Suu Kyi, Francis spoke mostly in general terms. The highly-anticipated remarks will likely please his hosts but may draw condemnation from human rights activists, who blame the Myanmar army for driving out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from the country. Francis did not specifically address allegations of ethnic cleansing but said religion has an important role to play in solving the crisis.
“The arduous process of peace-building and national reconciliation can only advance through a commitment to justice and respect for human rights,” he said, according to a translation provided by the Vatican. Suu Kyi also spoke in mostly in generalities, though she mentioned the location of the crisis by name. “As we address long standing issues, social, economic and political, that have eroded trust and understanding, harmony and cooperation, between different communities in Rakhine, the support of our people and of good friends who only wish to see us succeed in our endeavors has been invaluable,” she said. Suu Kyi and Francis met briefly before the speeches.
More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled across the border to neighboring Bangladesh since a recent spate of violence began in August. Refugees allege the Myanmar’s military has murdered children, raped women and razed villages.
The Rohingya have long faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Government and officials do not use the term Rohingya to refer to the minority; they consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though some families have lived in Myanmar for centuries. The Rohingya are not recognized by the government as an official minority, meaning they are effectively denied citizenship.
Declining to use the word “Rohingya” was effectively a win for those trying to delegitimize the term, said Penny Green, a professor of law at Queen Mary University of London who studies the Rohingya conflict. She told CNN in an email the decision is “a clear concession to the Myanmar regime and its Christian mouthpiece Cardinal Bo who have been at pains to remove the Rohingya identity, not only from the country but also from the national lexicon. “Pope Francis’s talk of universal human rights, peace and dignity is little more than platitude,” Green said. “If the Pope cannot even mention the name of those who have been most cruelly and comprehensively excluded then it says little for any moral pressure he was hoping to apply to Aung San Suu Kyi and the military regime she has aligned herself to.”
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/asia/pope-speech-rohingya-myanmar/inde…
