Vatican City: Pope Francis' faces political minefield in Myanmar

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Myanmar’s two-year old democratically elected government has drawn worldwide criticism because of the persecution of the Rohingya.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: America Magazine
By Gerard O’Connell | November 26, 2017

Pope Francis will be stepping carefully through a political minefield as he visits Myanmar from Nov. 27-30. This majority-Buddhist state with 52 million inhabitants is on an uphill road to full democracy because the military, which ruled for 60 years, still holds the balance of power.

Myanmar’s two-year old democratically elected government led by Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has drawn worldwide criticism in recent months because of the persecution of the Rohingya, a minority Muslim population, by the military. Approximately 620,000 Rohingya have left Myanmar’s Rakhine state to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

On the eve of the pope’s visit, Bangladesh’s foreign minister announced that his country had struck a deal with Myanmar for the return of hundreds of thousands of these refugees, though the details are not yet clear.

“The Catholics are very excited; and also the other Christians," Cardinal Charles Bo told America on the eve of the visit. "The Buddhists, the Muslims and the Hindus too have been very cooperative, they’re very happy with the visit of the pope."

"The only thing where there’s concern," he said, "is what he will be saying publicly to the authorities and the diplomats, and what he will be saying in the public Mass, what he will be telling the youth."

Many inside and outside the country will be monitoring carefully what Francis will say and do during his visit. Aware of all this, Francis sought to spell out clearly the purpose of his trip in a video-message, on Nov. 17, to the inhabitants of this country.


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