User:Shruti Sivaraman/sandbox

Pope Francis began his first papal visit with a meeting, with the country's military chief General Min Aung Hlaing. According to the Vatican the meeting was a "courtesy visit". Greg Burke, the Vatican spokesperson stated that the discussion covered the great responsibilities the authorities had, in the country's moment of transition.

In a predominantly Buddist country, there are about 700,000 Catholics, which is less than 2% of the population.

After a series of deadly attacks on police posts by Rohingya militants in Rakhine state, in August, the government was prompted to take stern military action. The unrest that followed led to more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Myanmar has been accused of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims by the U.N. and a list of countries, including the U.S. General Min Aung Hlaing, however denied any religious discrimination and stated there was religious freedom in his country.

The Roman Catholic Church in Myanmar has advised the Pope, not to use the word "Rohingya" in order to avoid hurting local sentiments and aggravating the political situation in the country. Rohingya's are labelled as "Bengalis" in Myanmar and are considered to be migrants from Bangladesh, though Bangladesh has denied the same. The Pope, who is known for his moderate views is scheduled to meet Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the government. She has been widely citicized for her silence on the violence against Rohingyas. The Pope has been urged to lend her support, in the hope of preventing absolute military rule in the country though, according to the country's constitution, written by the military, the armed forces are out of her control.

After Myanmar, the Pope will visit Bangladesh to meet a small group of Rohingya refugees. Last week Myanmar and Bangladesh had signed a deal for the return of thousands of refugees.