Foreign minister: Pope is on Bangladesh's side on Rohingya issue

The visit of Pope Francis to Bangladesh carries “great importance” at a time when the country is struggling with the Rohingya crisis, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said on Thursday. The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics arrived in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon for a three-day state visit which will most likely be dominated by the Rohingya issue. “We will be able to learn about his stance on the Rohingya issue,” the foreign minister told the media. “He supported us before his trip to Myanmar, so he is certainly on our side.” Pope Francis avoided using the world “Rohingya” during a three-day trip to Myanmar which preceded his arrival in Bangladesh. This is despite over 600,000 members of the ethnic minority having fled to Bangladesh from their homeland in Rakhine state since Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August that the UN has described as “ethnic cleansing”. Bangladesh is now hosting an estimated one million Rohingya. Pope Francis is due to meet 15 of the recently-arrived refugees in Dhaka today, in what is sure to provide the focal point of his trip.

Pope’s itinerary

The Pope is visiting Dhaka at the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh. Today, more than 80,000 followers from the country’s Catholic community will join Pope Francis for a mass prayer for world harmony and peace at Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka. In the afternoon, he will visit the Vatican Embassy (Apostolic Nunciature) in Baridhara, Dhaka, where he will meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Later in the day, the Pope will hold a meeting with the bishops of Bangladesh in the garden of the Archbishop’s house in the city, where he is also set to meet the Rohingya refugees. On Saturday, Pope Francis will visit Tejgaon Mother Teresa House and meet with priests, religious and consecrated men and women, seminarians and novices in the Church of the Holy Rosary in Tejgaon. He will deliver a speech at the Notre Dame College in Dhaka at 3:20pm before leaving Dhaka at 5pm after receiving an official farewell at the airport.This article was first published on Bangla Tribune