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November 27, 2017

Pope Francis Visits Burma Amid Military Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against Rohingya
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Pope Francis is visiting Burma today, amid the Burmese military's
ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims in the
majority Buddhist nation. More than 600,000 Rohingyas have fled Burma
into neighboring Bangladesh amid a Burmese military campaign of murder,
rape, torture and forcible displacement.

Pope Francis is slated to meet today with the Burmese military leader
Min Aung Hlaing, who has sole authority over Burma's armed forces, and
who is likely planning to run for president in 2020.

On Tuesday Pope Francis will meet with Burma's de facto leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose relative silence in the face
of the ethnic cleansing campaign has deeply undercut her international
standing. This all comes only days after Bangladesh and Burma signed a
deal to repatriate of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees back to
Burma. This is Abdul Mannan, a Rohingya refugee speaking from a
Bangladeshi refugee camp.

Abdul Mannan: "We ought to be returning to our own country but we have
one condition. We Rohingya people want our own nationality to be
recognised there, if we are not recognised by the government there then
we will not go back from here."



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