美国有线新闻 CNN 罗马教皇首访缅甸 罗兴亚危机成焦点

Yesterday, Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, became the first pope to visit Myanmar. His three-day stay there will be immediately followed by a trip to neighboring Bangladesh. Both of those countries are involved in the plight 1 of the Rohingya.

This is a Muslim group that's a minority in Myanmar. The country has a population of more than 55 million, most of them Buddhist 2, fewer than a million people there are Rohingya. Most of them live in a Western state of Myanmar that partly borders Bangladesh, and more than 623,000 Rohingya have crossed that border into Bangladesh.

Why?

The United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations all accused Myanmar's military of ethnic 3 cleansing 4, using violence to rid the country of the Rohingya, Myanmar's leaders have denied doing this, saying they're not targeting civilians 5 but instead terrorist who've attacked the military.

So, this is one of the issues that's foremost on the pope's mind as he stays in Myanmar. In the past, he's called the Rohingya his persecuted 6 brothers and sisters who are being, quote, tortured and killed. But because Myanmar's leaders deny that and see the Rohingya as belonging to Bangladesh anyway, experts say the pope will have to discuss the situation very carefully to avoid offending his hosts.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Funeral for a fallen man. This was the scene in January, after the brazen 7 daylight shooting of a well-known lawyer in Myanmar.

The victim, Ko Ni, was outspoken 8 member of Myanmar's tiny Muslim religious minority. His daughter says he was gunned down while cradling his two-year-old grandson outside Yangon International Airport.

YIN NWE KHANG, DAUGHTER OF MURDERED LAWYER: I turned around and looked, and my father was on the ground. So, I just run and help him. But at the time, there's no sign of life.

WATSON: Ko Ni's killing 9 came during a surge of religious tension in this overwhelmingly Buddhist country, a phenomenon CNN reported on two years ago.

Who is threatening Buddhism 10 in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Muslim.

WATSON: Muslims only make up around 5 percent of the population, but some Buddhist monks 11 preached that they posed an existential threat to the country.

THAW 12 PARKA, MA BA THA SPOKESMAN (through translator): We are worried they will exploit our ethic 13 heritage, cultural buildings, religious monuments and our brethren. They may carry out suicide bombings.

WATSON: Nowhere is this fear of Muslims more acute than in Rakhine State, where a deadly attack by Rohingya Muslim militants 14 against security forces last August triggered a campaign of reprisals 15. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have since been driven from their homes across the border, to neighboring Bangladesh. Refugees accused the military of torching their villages, mass rape 16 and murder.

Myanmar says it's fighting against a terrorist insurgency 17 and denies deliberating attacking civilians. The U.S. and the United Nations call it ethic cleansing.

This little public sympathy in Myanmar for the Rohingya. For decades, authorities labeled them illegal immigrants and denied them citizenship 18.

Rohingya crisis has reached fears among other Muslims in Myanmar who do enjoy full citizenship rights.

U THAN AUNG, IMAM: Hate speech overwhelmed the minds of most of the people in Myanmar. If you look at these people, it's all because of fear. And because of this fear, they are afraid us and we are afraid of them.