Pope sidesteps Rohingya crisis during Myanmar address

Naypyidaw, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis urged respect for rights and justice in a keenly-watched address in Myanmar on Tuesday, but refrained from any mention of the Rohingya or the alleged ethnic cleansing that has driven huge numbers of the Muslim minority from the country.

Sharing a stage with Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyidaw, the pontiff tip-toed around the humanitarian emergency of the Rohingya.

Peace can only be achieved through “justice and a respect for human rights”, he said in a broadly-framed speech that also called for “respect for each ethnic group and its identity”.

The word “Rohingya”, an incendiary term in a mainly Buddhist country where the minority are denied citizenship and branded illegal “Bengali” immigrants, was entirely absent from his speech.

Francis has repeatedly defended the group, 620,000 of whom have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August.

Rights groups had urged him during his four-day visit to confront Myanmar about its actions, but the local Catholic Church cautioned him against straying into the Rohingya issue.

Also on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council announced it will hold a special session next week to discuss the situation facing the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine.

The December 5 session “is being convened per an official request submitted today by Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia” that has been supported by 73 states, the rights council said in a statement.

– Widespread loathing –

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been ostracised by a global rights community that once adored her but is now outraged at her tepid response to the crisis.

She spoke of the challenges her country faces as it creeps out of the shadow of five decades of military rule, but also did not reference the Rohingya.

The government aimed to build the nation by “protecting rights, fostering tolerance, ensuring security for all”, she said in a short speech, that gave a nod to the “situation in the Rakhine.”

The pope’s peace mission is strewn with pitfalls in Myanmar, where a monk-led Buddhist nationalist movement has fostered widespread loathing for the Rohingya.