‘Horrors I survived are nightmares of others’

Hard times: Rohingya refugees carrying food supplies back to their camp in Kutupalong. — Bernama

COX’S BAZAR: The tears have dried up for Sofia Begum. She has seen horrors others only have nightmares about.

The men in military uniform came to her village in Rakhine state in Myanmar and shot her six-year-old son dead. They shot her husband, too, but he survived. He was shot in the leg.

“They shot him just like that,” said Sofia, her finger pointing to her forehead.

“My husband was shot in the leg.”

The padi farmer said she saw the military men come to her village and rape the women and girls.

“Some the girls were just 12 years old. They were raped and their throats were slit.

“There was nothing we could do. We just ran away,” she said through an interpreter at the Kutupalong refugee camp near here yesterday.

“We ran away from our village. We walked for 15 days until we reached this camp.”

Even the walk was a death-defying one.

“If the military men spotted anyone walking, they would just shoot them dead,” she said.

Another refugee, Roshid Ahmad, 38, also from Rakhine, said the Myanmar military ordered the Rohingya community to hand over their kitchen knives and other sharp utensils used in farming.

“It was to prevent us from defending ourselves,” he added.

Roshid also told of how the Rohingya were murdered and raped in their villages.

“My younger brother was shot dead when he stopped to rest while escaping here. Soldiers would come to the villages at night to rape and kill because that’s when they were less likely to be spotted by their victims.

“Ask any Rohingya person here. They will tell you the soldiers will shoot dead any Rohingya they see, whether they are walking in the street or in their houses.

“They were shot dead for no reason,” said Roshid, who came to the camp with his wife and four children.

Roshid said he and the rest of the refugees who came from the border districts of Myanmar and Bangladesh were lucky to have reached the camp.

“If a hundred people try to escape from Myanmar, only 40 will reach the refugee camps,” he added.

Those who cannot escape to the refugee camps face harassment.

“Some mosques were ordered to be closed a few years ago. We were told we would be given national identity documents if we leave Islam.

“If we don’t leave our religion, we will not get the documents, the government officials said,” Roshid claimed.

Sumuda Begum, 25, who is eight months pregnant, just arrived at the camp on Saturday. She had walked for eight days until she reached the camp.

“My husband was shot dead by the soldiers. When I escaped to Bangladesh, I saw so many dead bodies on the roadside that I vomited,” she added.

Malaysian volunteer doctor Ahmad Yusuf Yahaya, 32, from Malaysian NGO Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia, said many of the Rohingya refugees did not have the basic knowledge of health and nutritional information.

“We are working with the local medical fraternity here to provide the basic medical help and raise awareness among the refugees on the importance of health.

“There are tens of thousands of them in camps throughout the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, including about 70,000 pregnant women.

“The refugee camps which used to be separated are now becoming a small tent city here.

“It’s a humanitarian crisis. Contagious diseases can spread quickly if not contained properly, ” said Dr Ahmad Yusuf.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is now in Dhaka on an official visit to Bangladesh, is expected to travel to Cox’s Bazar today to assess the situation of Rohingya refugees there.