Pope Francis avoided using the term 'Rohingya' during and after talks with Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, on the second day of a visit fraught with tension over the issue of 'ethnic cleansing' against the Muslim minority group.
The Pope did, however, urge respect for 'each ethnic group' in his address, urged a future of peace and offered support for democratic government in the country.
'The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity, respect for the rule of law, and respect for a democratic order that enables each individual and every group – none excluded – to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good,' Francis said.
The Pope earlier met leaders of several faiths in the majority-Buddhist country, calling for 'unity in diversity' but so far making no public mention of the Rohingya who have fled en masse to Bangladesh since a military crackdown began three months ago.
Francis will also travel to Bangladesh, where more than 620,000 Rohingya have fled to escape what Amnesty International has dubbed 'crimes against humanity'.
Separately, the Tooting MP Rosena Allin-Khan spoke of her 'heartbreaking' trip to Bangladesh organised by Christian Aid to see the charity's work on the ground in response to the Rohingya crisis.
Myanmar's army has denied accusations of murder, rape, torture and forced displacement that have been made against it.
'Unity is always a product of diversity,' Pope Francis told leaders of the Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish and Christian faiths in the city of Yangon, according to Vatican officials who gave a briefing on the 40-minute meeting.
'Everyone has their values, their riches as well as their differences, as each religion has its riches, its traditions, its riches to share. And this can only happen if we live in peace, and peace is constructed in a chorus of differences,' he said.
Aye Lwin, a prominent Muslim leader who was at the meeting, told Reuters that he had asked the Pope to appeal to Myanmar's political leaders 'to rescue the religion that we cherish, which could be hijacked by a hidden agenda'.
Only about 700,000 of Myanmar's 51 million people are Catholic. Thousands of them have travelled from far and wide to see him and more than 150,000 people have registered for a Mass that Francis will say in Yangon on Wednesday.
The Pope later flew to the capital, Naypyitaw, where he met President Htin Kyaw, writing in the guest book at the presidential palace: 'On all the beloved people in Myanmar, I invoke the divine blessings of justice, peace and unity.'
He then went into talks with Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and champion of democracy who has faced criticism from around the globe because she has expressed doubts about the reports of rights abuses against the Rohingya and failed to condemn the military.
The Rohingya exodus from Rakhine state to Bangladesh began after August 25, when Rohingya militants attacked security posts and the Myanmar army launched a counter-offensive.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week called the military operation 'ethnic cleansing' and threatened targeted sanctions for 'horrendous atrocities'.
Myanmar's government has denied most of the accusations made against it, and the army says its own investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing by troops.
Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as citizens nor as members of a distinct ethnic group with their own identity, and it even rejects the term 'Rohingya' and its use.
Many people in Myanmar instead refer to members of the Muslim minority in Rakhine state as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The latest developments on the papal visit, the first to Myanmar, came as it emerged that Rosena Allin-Khan, the British MP for Tooting in south London, has returned from a 'heart-breaking' trip organised by Christian Aid to Bangladesh where she saw first-hand the effects of the Rohingya crisis.
Christian Aid has been helping all communities displaced by the fighting in Myanmar's Rakhine State, and Rohingya Muslims who have crossed the country's border into Bangladesh as refugees.
Allin-Khan visited the work that the charity is doing in response to the crisis in Cox's Bazar, at south east Bangladesh. Christian Aid deployed a response team shortly after the crisis began and launched an appeal in September to help raise funds specifically for this work.
Allin-Khan, a former humanitarian aid doctor, wanted to see the makeshift health clinic that Christian Aid and its local partners have set up in Jamtoli camp where a medical team of doctors, paramedics and nurses treats between 200 and 300 people per day.
Allin-Khan said: 'Over 600,000 people have fled Myanmar and made their way across the border into Bangladesh since the end of August. The camps are overcrowded and sanitation is a problem. Living conditions will deteriorate even further unless the humanitarian response is scaled up.
'People are exhausted and desperate for food, shelter and clean water. Several people I spoke to have been left traumatised after having lost loved ones or through witnessing shocking violence. I listened to their stories of fleeing Myanmar and crossing over to Bangladesh. What they've been through, what they're dealing with, it's heart-breaking.
'With the camps being made up of 80 per cent women and children, I treated women who were so malnourished that they simply couldn't feed their starving babies who were dying in my arms. Christian Aid and other charities are doing all they can to meet the basic and urgent needs of these displaced people.'
Additional reporting by Reuters.
