Naypyitaw, Burma, Nov 24, 2017 / 15:42 pm
When Pope Francis visits Burma, also known as Myanmar, later this month, his visit will come at one of the most contentious periods of the country's history.
In recent months, state-supported violence against Burma's Rohingya Muslim community – an ethnic and religious minority– has reached staggering levels, causing the United Nations to declare the situation "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."
"The scope of the humanitarian crisis is enormous and it's ongoing," said Daniel Mark, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in an interview with CNA at the end of September. "Once again we unfortunately have another terrible crisis that's focusing people's attention on something that's already a terrible situation."
"This is a deep and longstanding problem that we've been trying to call attention to for a long time, but it's going to need an extremely long and concerted effort to address," Mark told CNA. "Even addressing the immediate humanitarian crisis is not going to solve this profound underlying issue of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma."