Pope Francis used the word “Rohingya” during an emotional meeting with refugees in Bangladesh on Friday, having studiously avoided the term on his earlier visit to Burma. "The presence of God today is also called Rohingya," the pontiff said after meeting 16 Rohingya people who had been forced to flee their homes in Burma and cross into neighbouring Bangladesh. "Your tragedy is very hard, very great, but it has a place in our hearts. In the name of all those who have persecuted you, who have harmed you, in the face of the world's indifference, I ask for your forgiveness," he said, grasping their hands and listening to their stories. He listened intently as each member of the group, which included 12 men and four women, including two young girls, told him what they had been through. A Rohingya refugee wipes tears from his eyes, as he waits to meet Pope Francis, during an inter-religious conference at St. Mary's Cathedral in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: Reuters "Maybe we can't do much for you, but your tragedy has a place in our hearts," said the Pope, who is on the second leg of a six-day, two-nation tour of Asia. Among the refugees was Shawkat Ara, a 12-year-old Rohingya orphan who broke down in tears shortly after the Pope spoke to her. "My parents were killed. I don't have any joy," she said, recounting how she had lost her entire family in an attack by the military in Myanmar. More than 620,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee Bangladesh since August in what the UN and human rights groups say is a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing by the Burmese military. The ethnic minority has told of their villages being burned down, people murdered and women raped by the Burmese military and Buddhist mobs. Pope Francis prays next to Rohingya refugees during an inter-religious meeting in Dhaka on December 1, 2017. Credit: AFP The presence of the Rohingya in Burma is a highly sensitive and polarising issue, with the ethnic minority claiming they have lived there for centuries but the Yangon government insisting they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and referring to them as “Bengalis”. The Pope’s decision to specifically refer to the Rohingya, rather than talk broadly about the need to respect human rights, as he had done in Burma, was welcomed by activists. “I’m glad he used the word, it’s encouraging," Tun Khin, the head of the Burmese Rohingya Association UK, told The Telegraph. "But it’s sad the debate is reduced to talking about who said the word or not. The point is the Rohingya are facing genocide in Burma, and the question should be how the international community can put a stop to it. "The UN Security Council must adopt stronger resolutions. We need targeted sanctions against the perpetrators, and UN peacekeepers to provide safety and security, and those responsible must be brought before the international criminal court." Earlier in the day, the Pope led a giant open-air Mass in Dhaka attended by around 100,000 Bangladeshi Catholics. They sang hymns in Bengali and chanted "Viva Il Papa" ("Long live the Pope") as he was driven through the crowds in a Popemobile.
