Pope urges world to remember war-torn Myanmar

Says it is ‘shameful’ not to worry about forgotten wars such as the conflict in beleaguered Southeast Asian country

Pope urges world to remember war-torn Myanmar

Speaking of forgotten wars, Pope Francis called on the world to remember conflict-torn Myanmar where tens of thousands of people are suffering under brutal military rule.

“I want to emphasize this: the forgotten wars. Today, we are all worried, and it is right that we should be, about a war here in Europe, at the door of Europe and in Europe, but there have been wars for years: for more than 10 years in Syria, think of Yemen, think of Myanmar, think of Africa,” the pope said during an Oct. 13 meeting with the editors and collaborators of Mondo e Missione, the monthly magazine of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.

“Forgotten wars, it is shameful to forget them like that. And also, remembering those who work silently and tenaciously at the grassroots to build a better world, tracing paths of solidarity and reconciliation in contexts marked by crises or violence,” he added.

Pope Francis has spoken several times about the crisis in Myanmar, a country he regards with much affection after visiting there in November 2017.

He has repeatedly called for the military leaders to stop the violence, release all detained people and pursue dialogue to seek peace and reconciliation.

Myanmar’s junta has cracked down hard on anti-coup protesters and renewed fighting with ethnic rebel groups including those in Christian-majority regions like Kachin, Kayah, Karen and Chin states and central Myanmar’s Bamar heartland.

“Church compounds are becoming refugee centers”

Military offensives involving air strikes and artillery shelling have destroyed villages and killed hundreds of civilians. Churches, Church-run facilities and Christian villages have been attacked and badly damaged.

The Catholic Church has played a vital role in providing humanitarian aid to internally displaced people, especially in the hardest hit diocese of Loikaw in Kayah state along with neighboring Pekhon diocese in southern Shan state where there is ongoing conflict and thousands of IDPs are in dire need of medicine, shelter and food amid restrictions.

The dioceses of Kalay and Hakha that cover embattled Chin state, as well as the Sagaing region and Mandalay archdiocese have also been affected by the ongoing conflict.

“Villagers who flee when the army arrives only have us. Church compounds are becoming refugee centers,” Archbishop Marco Tin of Mandalay told LaCroix International during a visit to France in September.

Tom Andrews, special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, warned that conditions have “gone from bad to worse, to horrific for untold numbers of innocent people in Myanmar.”

“Many in Myanmar have come to the conclusion that the world has forgotten them, or simply doesn’t care. They ask me why member states refuse to take measures that are both possible and practical, measures that could save untold numbers of lives,” he told the Human Rights Council in September.