Assault on Rohingyas: Brutality ‘breaks all previous records’

Rashid Ahmed thought he had seen it all during his seven decades as a persecuted Rohingya inhabitant of Rakhine state in Myanmar. But that was before last Friday, when at least 89 people including a dozen security force members were killed as Rohingya insurgents reportedly besieged border posts in the troubled state. The response of the Myanmar army was to launch a new crackdown on the Rohingyas, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh. “I saw the brutalities of the then junta government against us in 1980s (and) I witnessed many of our community being assaulted in 90s,” said Rashid. “But the atrocities we are facing now have broken all the previous records.” Rashid, who is classified as a Rohingya IDP (internally displaced person), spoke to the Dhaka Tribune on Monday after fleeing Miarpara village in the Dekiboni union of Rakhine. “Rakhine state will soon wear a deserted look if the campaign of assault continues for a few more days,” the septuagenarian said. “Army men have taken away three of my six sons. They slit the throat of one of my grandsons named Abuiya before my eyes. Finding no other place to take shelter, I have come here.” Holding his grandson by one hand, the elderly man was walking with a cane in the other hand, tired after a 20km trek to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. He was seen stumbling and taking a rest after every few minutes on his way to the ‘no man’s land’ of Jalpaitali point in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila. “We have been undergoing oppression for decades. We have no freedom to move despite living in our own country,” he said. Rashid was accompanied by his eldest son, Abdul Zabbar. Fighting back tears, Zabbar said they were “bound for a destination unknown”. “Our journey is endless. We do not know whether we could ever be able to return to our home. We do not even know what happens to us on our journey,” Zabbar said, with his newborn baby on his lap. Zabbar said his ancestors had been living in Rakhine for centuries. “They (the Myanmar government) will not give us our due rights: citizenship. But why this massacre? Why are they killing our youths after picking them up?” he said. Like Rashid and Zabbar, thousands of other Rohingyas including women and children are stranded in ‘no man’s land’ and pass their days without food and water while both the Border Guard Police (BGP) in Myanmar and Border Guard Bangladesh keep a vigil on their respective sides. They join the more than 70,000 Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the October 9, 2016 attacks on security posts, and the estimated 500,000 refugees who have come to Bangladesh during decades of persecution in their motherland. The previous counterinsurgency operation ceased in mid-February this year, ending a four-month sweep that the UN said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.