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full screen Refugees from Myanmar are appealing for leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be released by the military junta in Myanmar. Archive image. Photo: Sakchai Lalit/AP/TT
Pope Francis offers sanctuary in Vatican City to Myanmar’s imprisoned political leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The 78-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 27 years in prison by the military junta that overthrew the country’s democratically elected leadership in 2021 and then persecuted all opposition.
Now Pope Francis is getting involved in Myanmar’s totalitarian development.
“I have asked for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released and I have met her son in Rome. I have proposed that the Vatican give her protection on our territory,” says the Pope, according to a transcript of a meeting with Jesuits in Asia. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has recounted the private talks held in early September in Indonesia, East Timor and Singapore.
“We cannot continue to be silent about the situation in Myanmar today. We have to do something,” the Pope said, according to the report.
The military junta in Myanmar has not commented on the Pope’s actions, despite a direct question from the AFP news agency.
Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for many years during the then totalitarian military regime in Myanmar. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts for a peaceful and democratic change in the country. She was released from her house arrest in 2010 and came to lead the democratically governed Myanmar until the military coup.
But Aung San Suu Kyi also came under fire in 2017 for the way the Myanmar government, under her leadership, failed to stop the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority group.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s health is said to be faltering in captivity.