DHAKA,
Bangladesh — On the eve of his return to Rome, Pope Francis on Friday
used the word “Rohingya,” coming face-to-face with some of the
persecuted Muslims whose plight had cast a long shadow over his visit to
Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Critics
had been asking why a pontiff who so often condemned injustice against
the downtrodden had stayed silent earlier in the week, when he made his
first visit to Myanmar, a country in which Rohingya Muslims have been
raped, killed or driven into exile in Bangladesh by a brutal military
campaign of repression.
In
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Friday, the pope listened to the
stories, and held the hands, one by one, of 16 survivors of the
persecution — 12 men, two women and two young girls — vowing: “We won’t
close our hearts or look away. The presence of God today is also called
Rohingya.”
On
a stage following a large interfaith gathering for peace, the pope
patted men’s shoulders and pressed the forehead of a girl whose parents
and brothers had been killed. He bent low to kiss a small child on the
head. The enormity of their tragedy seemed to weigh on him.
“In
the name of everyone, of those who have persecuted you, of those who
have done you harm, above all for the indifference of the world, I ask
forgiveness. Forgiveness,” the pope said in emotional and apparently
unscripted remarks, as the survivors stood around him. He did not
address his own recent silence.
To
the large audience of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others, he
stressed that the Rohingya, as all of humanity, were created in the
image of God and he vowed to continue helping them “so that their rights
become recognized.”
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The
Rohingya are stateless Muslims from western Myanmar who, according to
the United Nations, the United States and many human rights groups, have
been the targets of ethnic cleansing. More than 600,000 Rohingya have
fled across the border to Bangladesh, where they live in desperate,
sprawling refugee camps in areas like Cox’s Bazar, where the group that
met the pope had earlier sought shelter.
Francis
had in the past, from the Vatican, denounced the “persecution of our
Rohingya brothers,” but during his visit Monday to Thursday in Myanmar,
diplomatic considerations and a fear of prompting a military crackdown
on the Christian minority had kept the usually outspoken pope from uttering the term Rohingya or directly addressing the humanitarian disaster.
That
uncharacteristic silence prompted criticism and frustration from those
who had grown accustomed to considering the pope as a moral compass in a
world that had gone adrift. The Vatican found itself refuting the
notion that the pope had relinquished the moral authority that imbued his office with influence.
But as soon as the pope left Myanmar, where the Vatican hinted that he had raised the issue with the military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing,
and the country’s de facto leader, the tarnished Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, he was more willing to broach the issue.
On Thursday night, at an event with Bangladesh’s president, he crept up to the word Rohingya, talking about Rakhine State where massacres, systematic rape and burning of villages have occurred.
But
through much of Friday, he focused on his own small church in
Bangladesh, with Roman Catholics numbering less than 400,000 in a
densely populated, majority Muslim country of 160 million. In the
morning, he celebrated Mass during which he ordained new priests and
then met with church leaders, complimenting them on their attention to
the poor.
“Especially in light of the present refugee crisis, we see how much more needs to be done,” he said.
Remarkably,
for a pope who has consistently elevated and championed the human
suffering of refugees, some supporters of Francis also thought that he
could have done more during his trip.
Others
understood the diplomatic minefield he had perhaps foolishly wandered
into. They contented themselves with his mere presence, hoping that
would be enough to draw attention to the issue.
“He
had to be balanced over in Myanmar,” said Rafiqul Islam, a Muslim auto
dealer in the audience who has participated in charity missions to bring
blankets and clothing to the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar. “But here he can
call all the world to please, help this problem. They are butchering
us.”
Before
the interfaith event began, the Rohingya took their seats on green
plastic chairs to the side of a stage and at the foot of a riser where
the news media assembled. Reporters clamored, cameras clicked and video
was taken as a little girl ate a clementine on her mother’s lap. An
older girl — who said she had lost her parents, two brothers, and two
uncles in the violence — sat next to them.
Abdul
Fyez, 35, stared ahead with sunken eyes. “We have been Rohingya for
generations, my father and my grandfather,” he said, adding that the
Myanmar military had killed his brother.
Mohammed
Ayub, 32, said the Myanmar military killed his three-year-old son when
they attacked his village in August. “The pope should say Rohingya. He
is the leader of the world,” Mr. Ayub said.
Moments
later, the pope was brought by rickshaw into the tented garden of the
archbishop’s residence and saluted the large crowd seated in rows on the
lawn. Many of them wore the traditional dress of their Muslim, Hindu,
Buddhist or Christian faiths.
“May
our meeting this afternoon be a clear sign of the efforts of the
leaders and followers of the religions present in this country to live
together in mutual respect and good will,” the pope said, adding that he
hoped that the spirit of unity would serve as “a subtle yet firm rebuke
to those who would seek to foment division, hatred and violence in the
name of religion.”
Throughout
the trip, Francis had been making subtle asides, alluding to principles
of democracy, equity and tolerance. For Francis, it seemed, the
Rohingya were the endangered whose name he dared not speak. But on
Friday night, toward the close of his trip, that all changed when he
brought them onto center stage.
“Many
of you have told me of the big heart of Bangladesh that welcomed you,”
the pope said as they stood around him. “And now I appeal to your big
hearts to be capable of granting us the forgiveness that we ask.”
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