Vatican City
AP
Pope Francis on Sunday decried the suffering of refugees in Myanmar and pleaded that houses of worship be respected as neutral places to take shelter.
He told the public gathered in St Peter’s Square for his customary Sunday noon remarks that he was joining his voice to that of the Asian nation’s bishops in also calling for humanitarian corridors.
Pope Francis delivers his speech as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, on Sunday, 20th June. PICTURE: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini.
Francis lamented that thousands of displaced people in Myanmar are “dying of hunger”. Violence, including ravaging of villages, has become endemic since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
A non-violent civil disobedience movement is challenging military rule, but the junta’s attempt to repress it with deadly force has fuelled resistance.
Francis noted that Myanmar’s Catholic bishops last week launched an appeal, “calling to the attention of the entire world, the heart-wrenching experience of thousands of persons in that country who are displaced and are dying of hunger”. He added he was joining the churchmen’s call for humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage for those fleeing.
Echoing the bishops, Francis also insisted that “churches, pagodas, monasteries, mosques, temples, just as schools and hospitals, be respected as neutral places of refuge”.
The Pope then prayed for peace in Myanmar before noting that Sunday was World Refugee Day, an initiative promoted by the United Nations.
“Let’s open our heart to refugees,” the pope said. ”Let make ours their sadness and their joys, let’s learn from their courageous resilience,” Francis said.
That way, he said, “all together, we will grow a more human community, one big family.”
On Friday, the United Nations General Assembly called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect November election results and release political detainees, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution with the support of 119 countries several months after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a 1st February coup. Belarus requested the text be put to a vote and was the only country to oppose it, while 36 abstained, including China and Russia.
“The risk of a large-scale civil war is real,” UN special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told the General Assembly after the vote. “Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing.”
Some countries which abstained said the crisis was an internal issue for Myanmar, others did not think the resolution would be helpful, while some states complained it did not adequately address the plight of Rohingya Muslims some four years after a military crackdown forced nearly a million to flee Myanmar.
European Union UN Ambassador Olof Skoog said the UN resolution sends a powerful message: “It delegitimises the military junta, condemns its abuse and violence against its own people and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had earlier on Friday pushed the General Assembly to act, telling reporters: “We cannot live in a world where military coups become a norm. It is totally unacceptable.”
The military cited the government’s refusal to address what it said was fraud in a November election as the reason for the coup. International observers have said the ballot was fair.
– With MICHELLE NICHOLS, Reuters
