Reuters :
Pope Francis visits Myanmar next week, a delicate trip for the world’s most senior Christian to a majority Buddhist country accused by Washington of the “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya people.
He will also visit Bangladesh to where more than 600,000 people have fled from what Amnesty International called “crimes against humanity” including murder, rape torture and forcible displacement, allegations the Myanmar military denies.
The trip is so delicate that some of the pope’s advisors have warned him against even saying the word “Rohingya,” lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country’s military and government against minority Christians.
The most tense moments of the Nov 26-Dec 2 trip are likely to be private meetings with army head Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and, separately, civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as citizens nor as a group with its own identity, posing a dilemma for Francis as he visits a country of 51 million people where only around 700,000 are Roman Catholics.