[Reader discretion: Graphic accounts of severe violence, murder and sexual abuse.]
Cox's Bazar is home to the largest number of Rohingya refugees, a persecuted minority from Myanmar. In Myanmar, the Rohingya are subject to religious and ethnic persecution forcing thousands to flee from their homes. Since Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh lies in close proximity to the Rakhine state, Myanmar where the Rohingya are from, have sought refuge in camps at Cox’s Bazar. Here, various journalists and news reporters have interviewed the Rohingya refugees which has shone light on the unspeakable and horrific forms of violence, persecution and accounts of genocide the Rohingya have faced. This article seeks to share the stories of two Rohingya women in these camps; Rajuma Begum and Gul Zahar.
Rajuma Begum
[From an interview/report by Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reporting from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in 2017]
Rajuma is from a village called Tual Toli in the Rakhine state, Myanmar. In 2017, her village was attacked by extremist Buddhists from the Burmese military in what is now called the Tula Toli massacre in which the estimated death toll was 1,179.
During this attack, soldiers set a fire outside a house Rajuma was in. Rajuma was captured by the soldiers and was hit as she held her son, one and half year old Sadiq. As she was abused, she lost hold of her baby who was then taken away from her by the soldiers. Then, horrifically, she was made to watch her baby be thrown into the fire and was gang raped as her parents, two sisters and brother were murdered.
At this moment in the interview, Rajuma started to cry, calling out for her mother, her voice in excruciating pain.
Rajuma says, “I feel like I am burning on the inside”.
Rajuma now lives in the Kutupalong camp in Cox' Bazar, Bangladesh with her husband Mohammed Rafiq to escape the violence and horrors they witnessed at home. However, Rafiq mentions how he and Rajuma are unable to get medical help for the head and jaw wounds Rajuma sustained when she was attacked and well as support for her trauma as they do not have much money.
Although this is a short window into Rajuma’s life, her experience shows a ghastly reality of the inhumane acts of violence experienced by Rohingya refugees. Her journey to Cox’s Bazaar was filled with trauma and pain, and it still is. Although she is in relative safety now, her future and the future of many Rohingya is unclear. Will she return to a safe and secure home, will the murderers of her baby, mother and siblings be held to account, or will she be displaced for the rest of her life? – no one knows.
Gul Zahar
Gul Zahar is in her 90s and is the head of four generation of her extended family. However, these four generations of her family all live with her in Cox’s Bazaar’s camps for the Rohingya refugees. All four generations have been born into refugee camps; displaced from their home.
Gul fled persecution on three different accounts. First, in 1978. Second, in 1991. Third, and most recently, in 2017. Gul Zahar fled from her village as it was torched and attacked. She states “the Myanmar military tortured us. This is why we came here” in hope to find some peace in Bangladesh.
Now living in a one-room shelter in Cox's Bazaar with her extended family Gul says "it's been a lifetime of sorrow". Something the elderly, particularly, know all too well about.
These stories testify to the unspeakable crimes and violence against the Rohingya people by the Myanmar military and extremist mobs. Rajuma and Gul are only two out of the 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh whose futures are left undecided and their perpetrators unaccounted for.
What we can do to help?
- Raise awareness about the genocide of the Rohingya people by sharing articles like this or information on the issue from trusted news sites.
- Donate to registered charities who are on the ground in Cox's Bazar's camps supporting refugees with medical help, education, food and clothes.
- Write to your local MP to encourage a larger discussion on the Rohingya refugees in the UK parliament and for the government to pressurise Myanmar's leaders like Min Aung Hlaing (Commander in Chief of the Myanmar military) to stop the genocide/ attacks on the Rohingya.
- For those of you who have volunteered and done ground work before, you could join trusted and registered charities to volunteer in the camp itself. This would include distributing food provisions, clothes and listening to and interacting with the Rohingya people.
Written by Adila, 2019.
Sources:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-rohingya-muslims-whats-behind-persecution-aung-san-suu-kyi-a7449126.html https://www.unocha.org/rohingya-refugee-crisis