Pope Francis warned not to use term 'Rohingya' on Myanmar visit

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Pope Francis warned not to use term 'Rohingya' on Myanmar visit

By Lindsay Murdoch
Updated

Bangkok: Myanmar's Catholic Church fears Pope Francis' imminent visit to the Buddhist-majority country, where religious tensions are near boiling point, could ignite attacks on Muslims.

Francis has been warned against even using the term "Rohingya" to describe 1.1 million Muslims who have been targeted by Myanmar security forces in the brutal offensive the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing" and human rights groups described as "crimes against humanity".

Mass killings, rapes and burnings, including against scores of children, have forced more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar's Rakhine state in the past three months, the largest movement of a distressed civilian population in Asia in decades.

However, Myanmar's Catholic Cardinal Charles Bo said ahead of one of Francis' most overtly political trips of his papacy that use of the term "Rohingya" could prompt "demonstrations at once, going after the Muslims."

A Rohingya Muslim girl pours water on herself as she bathes outside her tent in Kutupalong Refugee camp in Bangladesh on Monday.

A Rohingya Muslim girl pours water on herself as she bathes outside her tent in Kutupalong Refugee camp in Bangladesh on Monday.Credit: AP

"The pope will have to be very cautious in using the term 'Rohingya' because that is very political and very much contested," the cardinal said.

Myanmar's first cardinal, he was appointed by Francis, warned the use of the term "could leave a bad taste for the whole country" and added the pope was "walking a very tight rope."

Myanmar rejects the term Rohingya, does not recognise the ethnic minority as citizens and denies them basic rights even though they have lived in Myanmar for centuries.

Radical Buddhist leaders have expressed hatred for the Muslim minority and railed​ against global support for the Rohingya, as attacks on them escalated across the country this year.

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Francis is scheduled to say two masses in Myanmar and one in Bangladesh later this month.

Francis is scheduled to say two masses in Myanmar and one in Bangladesh later this month. Credit: AP

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who headed a commission of inquiry into the Rakhine persecutions, has also suggested Francis not use the term, saying it could be "incendiary".

"The word is so emotional," he said.

A Rohingya Muslim child, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, plays in front of her makeshift tent on Friday.

A Rohingya Muslim child, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, plays in front of her makeshift tent on Friday.Credit: AP

But human rights groups want the pope, who is seen as a vocal defender of the downtrodden, to again speak up for the Rohingya, who he said earlier this year "have been suffering, they are being tortured and killed, simply because they uphold their Muslim faith."

Using the term Rohingya, he said they have been "thrown out of Myanmar, moved from one place to another, because no one wants them."

Rohingya Muslim girls carry water pots in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Rohingya Muslim girls carry water pots in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Credit: AP

The Vatican says the motto of Francis' visit to Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh, from November 27 to December 2, will be "peace, harmony and love of people among different faiths". He is scheduled to say two masses in Myanmar and one in Bangladesh.

Almost 900,000 Rohingya are now facing what international aid agencies describe as a humanitarian emergency in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Francis is expected to raise the Rohingya crisis in his first speech in the capital Naypyitaw on November 28 in front of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government officials and military chiefs.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has been condemned across the world for defending the military's actions in Rakhine and accusing Muslim insurgents there of being terrorists.

But Cardinal Bo defended Ms Suu Kyi in an interview with Associated Press last week, saying while she should have spoken out against the Rakhine violence she has "constitutionally no voice to say anything to the military."

"She is in her own way trying to negotiate with the military so there will be cooperation between the government and military," Bo said.

Francis will also meet the Sangha supreme council of Myanmar's Buddhist monks, a powerful institution in the country, which has largely remained silent over the Rohingya atrocities.

The pope's itinerary makes no mention of him meeting with Rohingya in either country.

Vatican commentators say Francis, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, has shown a unique ability to thread through tough diplomatic needles during 21 overseas trips as pontiff over five years, but this time he is walking into a political minefield.

There are an estimated 659,000 Catholics among Myanmar's population of 51 million. The country's Muslim population before the exodus was about five million.

The Vatican established formal diplomatic relations with Myanmar in May, when Ms Suu Kyi and met Francis in the Vatican.

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In Bangladesh, Francis is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has called for the displaced Rohingya to be allowed to return safely to Rakhine state.

To donate to Australian aid agencies' joint Rohingya appeal please click here

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