MANDALAY (UCAN): Four Kachin bishops met for an hour and 45 minutes with Myanmar’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, to discuss prospects for peace in the country’s north, where intense fighting has erupted in recent months between ethnic armed groups and Myanmar’s military in Kachin and Shan states.
 

DHAKA (UCAN): The military of the Union of Myanmar admitted for the first time that its soldiers, along with Buddhist villagers were responsible for the murder of 10 alleged Muslim terrorists at Inn Din village in Rakhine last September during a counter-insurgency operation.
 
A statement issued on January 10 said, “Villagers and members of the security forces have confessed that they committed murder.”
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): The government of Myanmar will start the repatriation of Hindu refugees to Rakhine on January 22.
 
At least 3,000 of an estimated 8,000 Hindus living in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Sittwe were internally displaced, while others crossed over to neighbouring Bangladesh when Muslim Rohingya fled the clearance operations of the Myanmar military.
 

HONG KONG (SE): “The presence of God today is also called Rohingya,” Pope Francis said on December 1. The BBC reported that the pope’s unscripted comment was made during an interfaith meeting in Dhaka during his visit to Bangladesh when he also met with a group of Rohingya refugees and listened to their stories.
 
“In the name of all of those who have persecuted you, hurt you, I ask forgiveness,” the pope asked the refugees. “I appeal to your large hearts to give us the forgiveness that we are asking.”

Hong Kong (SE): At end of his four-day visit to Myanmar on November 30, Pope Francis had met with the country’s president, Htin Kyaw; state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi; its senior military general and army chief, Min Aung Hlaing; as well as leaders of the Buddhist, Muslim, Baptist and Jewish faiths.
 
To the dismay of some observers and rights advocates, not once while in Myanmar did he publicly use the word, Rohingya.
 

HONG KONG (SE): One thing about being a well-known person of influence, or what the Japanese would call having a wide face, is that there are always plenty of people around ready to give you advice, even though much of it may be conflicting.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): The government of the Union of Myanmar announced at the end of October that it will harvest the farmlands abandoned by the Rohingya people who have been forced to flee the violence mostly perpetrated by the military in Maungdaw, the Rakhine State, but did not release any plan to compensate the owners or use any of the proceeds to help them.
 

HONG KONG (SE): The media office at the Holy See has released details of the much talked about visit by Pope Francis to the Union of Myanmar, which is scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 2, followed by three days in Bangladesh.
 

HONG KONG  (SE): Myanmar’s state counsellor and de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, broke her silence over the massive Rohingya crisis in the northern state of Rahkine when she addressed matter in a nationally televised speech on September 18 CNN reported.
 
She said, “It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abdicate responsibility. We condemn all human rights violation and unlawful violence.”