By Umme Kulsum
Scattered all over the world being the worst victims of slow genocidal scheme of Burmese government, the Rohingya Muslims are the wretched minority compelled to be refugees in their own ancestral land, to flee for unknown destinations, to be victims of human trafficking, to die drowning into the river Naff and in the Andaman Sea, to be roasted inside their own houses, to be raped and gangraped in front of close relations, to embrace death without any valid reason and so on.
The Rohingya Muslims around 1,547,778 – 2000000 (according to Wikipedia) are mostly living in countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India,Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and Nepal. Nowhere in these countries the Rohingyas can have a sound sleep with utmost relaxation as uncertainty all the while haunts them.
The Rohingya Muslims across the world are in anyway surviving facing all the odds and hurdles of life. They are likely to be accustomed with the harsh realities of life since they have embraced all sufferings and hardships as parts of their own lives.
But among them, the worst sufferers are those especially who are living in Burma, Bangladesh and India.
To talk about Burma today, a large number of Rohingya Muslims’s abode, can be definitely assimilated with a part of hell in this very world, being tortured and persecuted irrespective of day and night – the kind of persecution that surpasses all brutalities and bestialities of all ages. The Rohingyas are made stateless, denied citizenship and freedom of movement along with basic rights such as access to education and healthcare.
Specially, since the recent crackdown from October 9, 2016, a huge number of people are internally displaced in Arakan State as a result of burning a series of villages and hamlets along with persecution and atrocities.
An estimated 16,000 internally displaced persons have returned to their villages in northern Arakan State, according to the Monday’s report of UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The people, who are displaced in Arakan since October 9, are not facilitated to go to their respective homes rather steps are being taken by the Burmese government to force them to live in camp-like villages though the Rohingyas are strongly protesting against this initiative.
The Burmese government’s long meditated plan was to make the displaced people live a life in grim and deplorable condition like those in IDP camps in Sittwe that established in 2012, only to deprive them from their wealth and ancestral lands.
This move of Burmese government is considered by the Rohingya critics to be a grim conspiracy against innocent Rohingya Muslims who are the victims of slow genocide for long since.
Again, those – living in the camps in Sittwe of Arakan State – witness the devastation of the camps by the stormy rains, blowing away the roofs of most of the tiny houses which are the only shelter for the wanderers on this earth. By this, their sufferings have been intensified who are already in lack of pure drinking water, food, clothing, medicine, health-care, and surviving amidst an unhygienic environment.
The UN estimates that 74,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border into Bangladesh since Myanmar began a military crackdown in northern Arakan State following attacks on border guards on October 9 last year.
“It’s becoming a silent crisis which does not have the international attention that it deserves, given the scale of the needs of the people and the uncertain future they are facing,” says Ezekiel Simperingham, Asia Pacific Regional Migration Coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC).
The Rohingya refugees – living in overcrowded makeshift settlements in Bangladesh – have escaped murder and persecution and ended up in mud hut. And with the torrential rains of the monsoon season approaching, along with the threat of cyclones and floods, the fate of Rohingya refugees looks as dangerous as their makeshift shelters.
The fortunate refugees only have tarpaulins for a roof, the rest stretch black plastic over bamboo frames and mats on the hard ground as beds. Their shelters are not strong enough to shield these extreme weather pattern.
Again, if we concentrate on about 40000 Rohingya refugees living in Indian cities like Jammu, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur and Haryana, we find that uncertainty looms for Rohingya following India government’s plan to deport Rohingyas from India as Hindu groups are calling for their eviction.
into a camp in Jammu
The wretched are not exempted from the natural calamities let alone man-created disasters as if they are born to suffer, to endure and to die ultimately. Being denied citizenship in their own country, the Rohingya Muslims are holding status of “Stateless”. They have ended up being the everlasting wanderers on the earth with their evarlasting sufferings with least possibility to overcome the hurdles in near future.
[The writer is an eminent and progressive Rohingya columnist, young female social activist who is devoted to work for the destitute Rohingya people everywhere. She awakens Rohingya girls to generate a responsible concern among them.The writer can be reached at kulsumhossain13@gmail.com]
