Rohingya refugee crisis

[Tactical Frog]

There was never a buddhist hindu war or cultural cleansing in terms of religion. J

Was it my imagination alone ? Oh wait a minute ...

 

[Suryavanshi]

The Catholic Church has an horrible record in terms of human rights. The protestant churches are no much better !

What about the Orthodox?
Besides what even is Orthodox Christianity

 

[Kshithij]

Was it my imagination alone ? Oh wait a minute ...

I meant cultural cleansing of hindus by buddhists and vice versa. The last time Burma tried to remove Tamil Chettiars (hindus), the Chettiars negotiated and got to stay back. This was despite hostility towards Indians for being agents of British government and being branded as colonial puppets. The word religion was dependent on previous sentence of buddhist-hindu only. Others are excluded. You are taking one sentence out of context from the other sentences by quoting anti muslim video

 

[Tactical Frog]

What about the Orthodox?
Besides what even is Orthodox Christianity

Orthodox split from catholic church around 1000 AD for reasons linked with political leadership . They are very conservative. Russian members if any here know more than me

 

[Tactical Frog]

Bad, bad buddhists ! Naughty even.

 

[Kshithij]

Bad, bad buddhists ! Naughty even.

Even I feel saddened at the war.

I really wished that no Muslims existed in the first place to make this happen.

 

[Tactical Frog]

UN Security Council calls on Myanmar to end excessive military force in Rakhine state

6 November 2017 – Strongly condemning the widespread violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has led to the displacement of over 600,000 members of the country’s minority Muslim Rohingya community, the United Nations Security Council on Monday called on the Government to end the use of excessive military force and intercommunal violence in the region.

In a statement read out by Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, the President of the Security Council for the month of November, the 15-member body also called on the Government “to restore civilian administration and apply the rule of law, and to take immediate steps in accordance with [the Government’s] obligations and commitments to respect human rights, including the rights of women, children, and persons belonging to vulnerable groups, without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity, religion, or citizenship status.”

The Council also urged the Government to implement measures in line with its resolution 2106 (2013) to prevent and respond to incidents of sexual violence, and encouraged it to work with the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The Council also expressed concern over severely limited humanitarian access to the affected parts of the region and demanded that the Government ensure immediate, safe and unhindered access to UN and other humanitarian actors, and ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel.

In the Presidential Statement, the Security Council also welcomed the Myanmar’s decision to establish a “Union Enterprise Mechanism” and urged the Government to ensure that the Mechanism supported such return and allowed United Nations agencies full access.

Further, welcoming the Government’s support for recommendations by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State and calling for their full implementation, the Council stressed the importance of transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, including sexual violence and abuse and violence against children, and of holding to account all those responsible for such acts.

“In this regard, the Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and instruments, in particular the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” added the Presidential Statement.

Also in the Statement, the Council commended the provision of humanitarian assistance and support for dialogue by Bangladesh as well as other regional countries and organizations; and requested the Secretary-General to continue to engage with the Myanmar through good offices.

It also encouraged the UN chief “to consider, as appropriate, appointing a Special Adviser on Myanmar.”

 

[Tactical Frog]

Even I feel saddened at the war.

I really wished that no Muslims existed in the first place to make this happen.

Well that would indeed simplify life . Life would be better on Earth without christianity and islam spreading . Flat earth theory, absurd 7000 years universe age . Alexander the Great received better scientific education than average christian rulers til 1600 AD.

 

[YagamiLight]

UN Security Council calls on Myanmar to end excessive military force in Rakhine state

6 November 2017 – Strongly condemning the widespread violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has led to the displacement of over 600,000 members of the country’s minority Muslim Rohingya community, the United Nations Security Council on Monday called on the Government to end the use of excessive military force and intercommunal violence in the region.

In a statement read out by Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, the President of the Security Council for the month of November, the 15-member body also called on the Government “to restore civilian administration and apply the rule of law, and to take immediate steps in accordance with [the Government’s] obligations and commitments to respect human rights, including the rights of women, children, and persons belonging to vulnerable groups, without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity, religion, or citizenship status.”

The Council also urged the Government to implement measures in line with its resolution 2106 (2013) to prevent and respond to incidents of sexual violence, and encouraged it to work with the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The Council also expressed concern over severely limited humanitarian access to the affected parts of the region and demanded that the Government ensure immediate, safe and unhindered access to UN and other humanitarian actors, and ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel.

In the Presidential Statement, the Security Council also welcomed the Myanmar’s decision to establish a “Union Enterprise Mechanism” and urged the Government to ensure that the Mechanism supported such return and allowed United Nations agencies full access.

Further, welcoming the Government’s support for recommendations by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State and calling for their full implementation, the Council stressed the importance of transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, including sexual violence and abuse and violence against children, and of holding to account all those responsible for such acts.

“In this regard, the Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and instruments, in particular the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” added the Presidential Statement.

Also in the Statement, the Council commended the provision of humanitarian assistance and support for dialogue by Bangladesh as well as other regional countries and organizations; and requested the Secretary-General to continue to engage with the Myanmar through good offices.

It also encouraged the UN chief “to consider, as appropriate, appointing a Special Adviser on Myanmar.”

If only UN had really cared about Hooman rights and and shits and had stopped the French and other Western vermin from bombing and destablising Syria, millions of lives would have been saved today. Too bad, Syrians dont count as Humans for the UN or the western vermins who control it

 

[YagamiLight]

Orthodox split from catholic church around 1000 AD for reasons linked with political leadership . They are very conservative. Russian members if any here know more than me

Orthodox is the original form of Church established by the Romans, with Pentarchs in Five major centers of power like Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch etc. It was the Western half of the empire whih broke away from the rest and became a church of its own called Catholicism. Orthodox is just a continuation of the older of the two versions. Since Catholics are now the majority, many falsely assume the Orthodox broke off from Catholicism, when it was the opposite of what actually happened.

 

[Tactical Frog]

If only UN had really cared about Hooman rights and and shits and had stopped the French and other Western vermin from bombing and destablising Syria, millions of lives would have been saved today. Too bad, Syrians dont count as Humans for the UN or the western vermins who control it

A mole sees more light than you
Don’t you have anything sensible to post about the Rohingya crisis ?

 

[Suryavanshi]

@Tactical Frog I guess Jessus tought people a way of life and his followers created religion

 

[Tactical Frog]

I found this piece very informative.

———————————————

Why do China, India back Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis?
Heavy investments in Rakhine state have seen the two countries take a markedly different approach to the Western powers leaning on Suu Kyi’s beleaguered government
Subir Bhaumik18 Oct 2017

Their troops may be involved in periodic stand-offs on the disputed Himalayan border and they may be competing for influence in Myanmar, but India and China are on the same page regarding the Rohingya crisis.

Heavily invested in Rakhine state, both Asian powers are giving strong backing to the Myanmar leadership, in contrast to the Western and Islamic countries demanding answers from the beleaguered Aung San Suu Kyi government.

The crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine by the Myanmese army – the Tatmadaw – has led to an exodus of half a million refugees into Bangladesh, raising fears of a military conflict.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week claimed Myanmar was trying to provoke a war with her country. Hasina is keen to prevent a trans-border jihadi nexus from taking hold and has offered military help to the Tatmadaw to take on the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), though Myanmar is yet to respond to the offer.

Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, addresses the UN headquarters in New York. Photo: EPA

India, too, fears a jihadi nexus. Its intelligence services have reported close links between the ARSA, Bangladesh’s Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) and the Indian Mujahideen, all apparently backed by Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba that New Delhi holds responsible for the 2008 terror strike on Mumbai.

“We stand by Myanmar in the hour of its crisis, we strongly condemn the terrorist attack on August 24-25 and condole the death of policemen and soldiers, we will back Myanmar in its fight against terrorism,” said a statement of the Indian ministry of external affairs the day after an ARSA attack on around 30 police and army posts, which the Myanmar army says triggered its ruthless counter-attack that has driven more than half a million Rohingya into Bangladesh. The Indian statement made no mention of the military’s retaliatory attacks.

India has also threatened to expel nearly 40,000 Rohingya migrants it says have illegally settled in the country, including 15,000 registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), provoking sharp criticism from the UN.

China has similarly extended “strong support” for Myanmar on the Rakhine issue. “We hope that the international community will create a good external environment so that Myanmar can solve its problems properly,” said the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang, at a reception to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China ahead of an open discussion on Rakhine at the UN Security Council.

Both India and China have huge infrastructure projects in Rakhine – the India-funded Kaladan multi-modal project designed to provide a sea-river-land link to its remote northeast through Sittwe port and the China-funded Kyauk Phyu port, which is to be the starting point of an oil-gas pipeline and railroad link to Yunnan state in China.

Though neither of these projects are in the troubled region of northern Rakhine, where Muslim Rohingya are a majority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the threat of terrorism spilling over to parts of Rakhine where they have invested and also into their own territories worries New Delhi and Beijing alike.

What if ARSA terrorists attack an Indian ship on the Kaladan river or try blowing up parts of the Yunnan-Kyauk Phyu oil-gas pipeline as the [separatist group United Liberation Front of Assam] used to do in [the Indian state of] Assam?” asks Major General Gaganjit Singh, former deputy chief of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency. “Such scenarios cannot be discounted.”

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit at Xiamen in early September amid a festering border stand-off at Doklam, both leaders decided not only to pull back troops from the Bhutanese territory to avoid a confrontation, they also reportedly agreed to “work constructively for regional stability”, with an emphasis on the ongoing Myanmar crisis.

China supports Myanmar to retain its influence built over three decades of massive development aid and supply of military hardware, India supports Myanmar to play catch-up and build influence partly by development financing and partly by playing on civilisational linkages based on the shared Buddhist heritage,” says Binoda Mishra, who heads the Centre for Studies in International Relations and Development in India. “And both India and China engage the Burmese military as much as the civilian government because the country is key to India’s ‘Act East’ policy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”

Beneath the veneer of a forced truce, India and China, however, continue to compete for influence. Just ahead of Modi’s visit to Myanmar last month, Indian ambassador Vikram Misri said his country’s approach to Myanmar’s development differed from “others”, pointedly alluding to China but not mentioning it by name.

“India wants to create public assets in Myanmar and hand over to local authorities, unlike some countries that want to create commercial assets for themselves in Myanmar,” Misri told local newsgroup Mizzima.

“We finance projects like Kaladan mostly by grants and some concessional financing, but we ensure that these never become a burden on Myanmar’s economy.”

Burmese nationalists have began to oppose Chinese plans to seek an 85 per cent stake in its prestigious Kyauk Phyu deep seaport project, adding to China’s defensiveness in Rakhine. A consortium spearheaded by China’s CITIC Group is reportedly pushing for a 70 to 85 per cent stake in the US$7.3 billion deep seaport. The size of the proposed Chinese stake is substantially larger than the 50-50 joint venture proposed by Myanmar late last year, an offer rejected by CITIC.

Kyauk Phyu is important for China because the port is the entry point for a Chinese oil and gas pipeline which gives it an alternative route for energy imports from the Middle East that avoids the Malacca Strait. The port is part of two projects, which also include an trading estate, to develop a special economic zone in Rakhine. CITIC was awarded the lead role in both initiatives in 2015. India fears China is creating a “debt burden” on Myanmar through projects like Kyauk Phyu that give it additional leverage.

“Like Sri Lanka, Myanmar will face a mounting debt burden. It is China’s strategy to then get controlling stakes in these projects as the Burmese will be unable to pay back,” said Indian economist Prabir De.

Chinese investments in Myanmar differ to those of the Japanese, who are developing Thilawa and Dawei SEZs, in which Myanmar keeps the controlling 51 per cent stake.

“The contrast between Kyauk Phyu and Thilawa is stark and noticeable,” said Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “The two per cent difference is not so big in practical terms but it is an important symbol of trust and friendship,” Tay told the Myanmar Times recently.

Burmese politicians are reluctant to openly criticise China because the country depends on its northern neighbour for support in the UN to counter resolutions critical of its human rights record in Rakhine.

But privately many NLD and opposition politicians say they are uncomfortable giving away controlling stakes in key projects like Kyauk Phyu, with many of them citing the example of Sri Lanka.

China is also increasingly facing resource nationalism as a result of its investment in gas extraction and pipeline projects in Kyauk Phyu, further adding to China’s cautious position on Rakhine. This year, about 600 residents of the deep-water port town of Kyauk Phyu boarded more than 100 motor boats and piloted them to the site of the local office of the Chinese state-owned oil company China National Petroleum Corporation, or PetroChina, to protest against the ban on their fishing activities as a result of the company’s presence.

Given the dominant role of Chinese firms in the consortium, and Kyauk Phyu’s proximity to these gas projects, resource nationalism is likely to intensify local resentment toward the SEZ,” Global Risk Insights said.

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopo...china-india-back-myanmar-over-rohingya-crisis

 

[Kshithij]

Chinese are rabidly anti muslim. I don't expect China to support Rohingya irrespective of investments. China might have remained neutral at best

I found this piece very informative.

———————————————

Why do China, India back Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis?
Heavy investments in Rakhine state have seen the two countries take a markedly different approach to the Western powers leaning on Suu Kyi’s beleaguered government
Subir Bhaumik18 Oct 2017

Their troops may be involved in periodic stand-offs on the disputed Himalayan border and they may be competing for influence in Myanmar, but India and China are on the same page regarding the Rohingya crisis.

Heavily invested in Rakhine state, both Asian powers are giving strong backing to the Myanmar leadership, in contrast to the Western and Islamic countries demanding answers from the beleaguered Aung San Suu Kyi government.

The crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine by the Myanmese army – the Tatmadaw – has led to an exodus of half a million refugees into Bangladesh, raising fears of a military conflict.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week claimed Myanmar was trying to provoke a war with her country. Hasina is keen to prevent a trans-border jihadi nexus from taking hold and has offered military help to the Tatmadaw to take on the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), though Myanmar is yet to respond to the offer.

Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, addresses the UN headquarters in New York. Photo: EPA

India, too, fears a jihadi nexus. Its intelligence services have reported close links between the ARSA, Bangladesh’s Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) and the Indian Mujahideen, all apparently backed by Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba that New Delhi holds responsible for the 2008 terror strike on Mumbai.

“We stand by Myanmar in the hour of its crisis, we strongly condemn the terrorist attack on August 24-25 and condole the death of policemen and soldiers, we will back Myanmar in its fight against terrorism,” said a statement of the Indian ministry of external affairs the day after an ARSA attack on around 30 police and army posts, which the Myanmar army says triggered its ruthless counter-attack that has driven more than half a million Rohingya into Bangladesh. The Indian statement made no mention of the military’s retaliatory attacks.

India has also threatened to expel nearly 40,000 Rohingya migrants it says have illegally settled in the country, including 15,000 registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), provoking sharp criticism from the UN.

China has similarly extended “strong support” for Myanmar on the Rakhine issue. “We hope that the international community will create a good external environment so that Myanmar can solve its problems properly,” said the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang, at a reception to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China ahead of an open discussion on Rakhine at the UN Security Council.

Both India and China have huge infrastructure projects in Rakhine – the India-funded Kaladan multi-modal project designed to provide a sea-river-land link to its remote northeast through Sittwe port and the China-funded Kyauk Phyu port, which is to be the starting point of an oil-gas pipeline and railroad link to Yunnan state in China.

Though neither of these projects are in the troubled region of northern Rakhine, where Muslim Rohingya are a majority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the threat of terrorism spilling over to parts of Rakhine where they have invested and also into their own territories worries New Delhi and Beijing alike.

What if ARSA terrorists attack an Indian ship on the Kaladan river or try blowing up parts of the Yunnan-Kyauk Phyu oil-gas pipeline as the [separatist group United Liberation Front of Assam] used to do in [the Indian state of] Assam?” asks Major General Gaganjit Singh, former deputy chief of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency. “Such scenarios cannot be discounted.”

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit at Xiamen in early September amid a festering border stand-off at Doklam, both leaders decided not only to pull back troops from the Bhutanese territory to avoid a confrontation, they also reportedly agreed to “work constructively for regional stability”, with an emphasis on the ongoing Myanmar crisis.

China supports Myanmar to retain its influence built over three decades of massive development aid and supply of military hardware, India supports Myanmar to play catch-up and build influence partly by development financing and partly by playing on civilisational linkages based on the shared Buddhist heritage,” says Binoda Mishra, who heads the Centre for Studies in International Relations and Development in India. “And both India and China engage the Burmese military as much as the civilian government because the country is key to India’s ‘Act East’ policy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”

Beneath the veneer of a forced truce, India and China, however, continue to compete for influence. Just ahead of Modi’s visit to Myanmar last month, Indian ambassador Vikram Misri said his country’s approach to Myanmar’s development differed from “others”, pointedly alluding to China but not mentioning it by name.

“India wants to create public assets in Myanmar and hand over to local authorities, unlike some countries that want to create commercial assets for themselves in Myanmar,” Misri told local newsgroup Mizzima.

“We finance projects like Kaladan mostly by grants and some concessional financing, but we ensure that these never become a burden on Myanmar’s economy.”

Burmese nationalists have began to oppose Chinese plans to seek an 85 per cent stake in its prestigious Kyauk Phyu deep seaport project, adding to China’s defensiveness in Rakhine. A consortium spearheaded by China’s CITIC Group is reportedly pushing for a 70 to 85 per cent stake in the US$7.3 billion deep seaport. The size of the proposed Chinese stake is substantially larger than the 50-50 joint venture proposed by Myanmar late last year, an offer rejected by CITIC.

Kyauk Phyu is important for China because the port is the entry point for a Chinese oil and gas pipeline which gives it an alternative route for energy imports from the Middle East that avoids the Malacca Strait. The port is part of two projects, which also include an trading estate, to develop a special economic zone in Rakhine. CITIC was awarded the lead role in both initiatives in 2015. India fears China is creating a “debt burden” on Myanmar through projects like Kyauk Phyu that give it additional leverage.

“Like Sri Lanka, Myanmar will face a mounting debt burden. It is China’s strategy to then get controlling stakes in these projects as the Burmese will be unable to pay back,” said Indian economist Prabir De.

Chinese investments in Myanmar differ to those of the Japanese, who are developing Thilawa and Dawei SEZs, in which Myanmar keeps the controlling 51 per cent stake.

“The contrast between Kyauk Phyu and Thilawa is stark and noticeable,” said Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “The two per cent difference is not so big in practical terms but it is an important symbol of trust and friendship,” Tay told the Myanmar Times recently.

Burmese politicians are reluctant to openly criticise China because the country depends on its northern neighbour for support in the UN to counter resolutions critical of its human rights record in Rakhine.

But privately many NLD and opposition politicians say they are uncomfortable giving away controlling stakes in key projects like Kyauk Phyu, with many of them citing the example of Sri Lanka.

China is also increasingly facing resource nationalism as a result of its investment in gas extraction and pipeline projects in Kyauk Phyu, further adding to China’s cautious position on Rakhine. This year, about 600 residents of the deep-water port town of Kyauk Phyu boarded more than 100 motor boats and piloted them to the site of the local office of the Chinese state-owned oil company China National Petroleum Corporation, or PetroChina, to protest against the ban on their fishing activities as a result of the company’s presence.

Given the dominant role of Chinese firms in the consortium, and Kyauk Phyu’s proximity to these gas projects, resource nationalism is likely to intensify local resentment toward the SEZ,” Global Risk Insights said.

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopo...china-india-back-myanmar-over-rohingya-crisis

 

[Chinmoy]

Bad news for Rohingya lovers in India????

Myanmar Army to train with Indian Army in Meghalaya from Monday

http://indianexpress.com/article/in...indian-army-in-meghalaya-from-monday-4943449/

 

[Tactical Frog]

Pope arrives in Myanmar on high-stakes visit

Pope Francis arrived in mainly Buddhist Myanmar Monday on a highly sensitive visit to a country facing sharp global criticism for the alleged ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The 80-year-old pontiff, the first to travel to Myanmar, was welcomed by children from different minority groups in bright, bejewelled clothes, who gave him flowers and received a papal embrace in return.

Nuns in white habits were among the devotees to have travelled from across the country in his honour, waving flags as his motorcade swept by the golden Shwedagon Pagoda to the archbishop's residence in downtown Yangon, where the pope will stay on Monday night.

"I saw the pope, he was sitting in the front of the car. I was so pleased, I cried!" Christina Aye Aye Sein, 48, told AFP after the pope’s convoy passed.

"His face looked very lovely and sweet... He is coming here for peace."

But the joyful scenes stood in stark contrast to the gravity of the main issue that frames his trip.

Myanmar's military stands accused of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims.

More than 620,000 have fled a crackdown in northern Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh over the past three months.

The pope's four-day visit intensifies pressure on Myanmar over its treatment of the stateless minority, a group he has called his "brothers and sisters" in repeated entreaties to ease their plight.

His speeches will be scrutinised by Buddhist hardliners for any mention of the word "Rohingya", an incendiary term in a country where the Muslim group are reviled and labelled "Bengalis" -- alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Francis will meet civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose lustre has faded because of her failure to speak up publicly for the Rohingya.

He will also hold talks with army chief Min Aung Hlaing -- a meeting between a religious leader, who has championed the rights of refugees, and the man accused of overseeing the brutal campaign to drive out the Rohingya.

Speaking to a crowd of 30,000 people in St Peter's Square, shortly before he left Rome, the pontiff said: "I ask you to be with me in prayer so that, for these peoples, my presence is a sign of affinity and hope."

- 'A few seconds' -

His visit is a historic chance for Myanmar's flock to get close to the head of their church.

Myanmar's estimated 700,000 Catholics make up just over one percent of the country's 51 million people and are scattered in far-flung corners of the nation, many of them roiled by conflict.

Around 200,000 Catholics are pouring into Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, by plane, train and car ahead of a huge open-air mass on Wednesday.

"People came from all corners of the country, even if we could only see him for a few seconds," Sister Genevieve Mu, an ethnic Karen nun told AFP.

"I feel very good and proud of our Catholic people and our government for opening the country for his visit."

- Prayers for peace -

The Rohingya crisis looms large over the pope's visit.

The army, which ran the country with an iron fist for nearly half a century, insists its Rakhine operation was a proportionate response to Rohingya "terrorists" who raided police posts in late August, killing at least a dozen officers.

But rights groups, the UN and the US have accused the army of using its operation as cover to drive out a minority it has oppressed for decades.

The deluge of desperate refugees arriving in Bangladesh have carried with them accounts of murder, rape and arson, at the hands of troops and hardline Buddhist mobs.

Inside the country a different opinion dominates.

"The vast majority of people in Myanmar do not believe the international narrative of abuse against the Rohingya and the refugee numbers that we're seeing in Bangladesh," said Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey.

"If the pope did come and weigh in heavily on this issue, it would inflame tensions and it would inflame public sentiment," he added.

Days before the pope's visit, Myanmar and Bangladesh inked a deal vowing to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months.

But details of the agreement -- including the use of temporary shelters for returnees, many of whose homes have been burned to the ground -- raise questions for Rohingya fearful of coming back without guarantees of basic rights.

Pope Francis will travel on to Bangladesh on Thursday, where he will meet a group of Rohingya Muslims in the capital Dhaka.

Nur Mohammad, a 45-year-old Rohingya imam at the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, said he hoped the pope would tell the Myanmar government to accept Rohingya, "give citizenship to them and end all discriminations against them."

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/pope-arrives-myanmar-high-stakes-visit-071825875.html

 

[Yggdrasil]

Pope arrives in Myanmar on high-stakes visit

This guy sure pokes his nose into all sorts of stuff.

Perhaps he should sort out the rampant sex abuse problems in his churches across the whole world first?

Monotheist hypocrisy is one thing I will never understand.

 

[Kalki_2018]

MAybe the idiot should advise Europe to stop providing weapons to ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

 

[Kshithij]

Send dalai Lama to Rome for a similar trip. That will be a fitting reply

 

[Tactical Frog]

This guy sure pokes his nose into all sorts of stuff.

Perhaps he should sort out the rampant sex abuse problems in his churches across the whole world first?

Monotheist hypocrisy is one thing I will never understand.

The Pope was invited in Burma by the authorities. He does not go anywhere without invitation.

Whatever you think about christianity or the Catholic Church, just think about the Pope as a spiritual leader and a head of State. This Pope is a very good diplomat, contrary to his German predecessor. His trip in Burma should be very instructive to watch.