Pope Francis pays historic visit to Myanmar
Pope Francis arrived in Myanmar on November 27 for a historic visit to the Buddhist-majority country amid global concern over the fate of more than half a million Muslim Rohingya.
Pope Francis in Myanmar (Photo: AFP)Hanoi (VNA) - Pope Francis arrived in Myanmar on November 27 for a historic visit to the Buddhist-majority country amid global concern over the fate of more than half a million Muslim Rohingya packed into squalid refugee camps along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
Pope Francis held talks with State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi on the second day of the trip. He also met with military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
Myanmar, an overwhelmingly Buddhist country of more than 51 million people, is home to a tiny Catholic community of around 700,000.
An estimated 200,000 Catholic followers are expected to flock to Yangon on November 29 to see Pope Francis.
Following the Myanmar trip, the pope will visit Bangladesh on November 30 where he will meet a delegation of Rohingya Muslims as well as Bangladeshi political and religious leaders.
The United Nations estimates that some 620,000 Rohingya from Myanmar's strife-torn Rakhine have flooded into Bangladesh since late August, when violence broke out between armed Rohingya militants and Myanmar security forces, prompting a harsh crackdown.
Myanmar and Bangladesh on November 23 signed an agreement on repatriating Rohingya. The repatriation is scheduled to start in February 2018.-VNA
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