From riches to rags

Dressed in a pressed shirt and a lungi, an elderly man with an air of dignity was walking through Kutupalang Rohingya Camp towards a makeshift hut that he now calls home. Looking at Dil Mohammad, 60, it is obvious that he comes from a different social strata in Myanmar compared to the majority of the refugees in the congested camp. “About 15 days ago, the Myanmar army cordoned my house at night. They woke us up and I thought they had come to speak to me about something so we make them tea and snack. “Little did I know what was actually happening. No sooner than I had opened my door, a bunch of young men entered and started looting everything. Then they held me at gunpoint and told me to leave and threatened to kill me otherwise. “As we were leaving, I saw them setting my house on fire. I kept looking back, watching my life burn down,” the old man said, fighting back the tears. Dil Mohammad in 1971 had sheltered many freedom fighters at his house after they were forced to flee Bangladesh during the Liberation War. “I did not know that the ungrateful Moghs and their associate armed forces also looted my jewellery stores! I had about hundred crore Myanmar Keyt worth of gold ornaments there! My neighbours told me that I was robbed of everything when we were fleeing. “I arrived at Kutupalang last Thursday (October 19) after being on the run from the army for 10 days. Residents of my village found me here and made me a plastic hut to sleep in,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. Unlike many of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, Dil Mohammad did well for himself. He has four jewellery stores in Fakira Bazar, Maungdaw town in Rakhine state. He had a comfortable life with 40 acres of land, more 100 livestock and a two storey wooden house, with his six wives and 10 children. “I now have to ask for food like a beggar. I never thought I would ever have to live like this,” Dil said breaking down at the indignity of having to live in such squalor at the refugee camps. Dil is no stranger to the ravages of war. He himself had sheltered many Bangladeshis during the Liberation war. “During Bangladesh’s Liberation War, many people from Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar took shelter at our house,” he said adding that the then Chittagong Lt Col (retd) Harun-or-Rashid, late Osman Sorwar Alam Chowdhury, MP, late Shamsher Alam Chowdhury and late Bikrom Ali Ahmad took shelter in his house in 1971. He hoped someone from their families would recognise him and offer him some assistance. “Before the violence erupted the other well of locals and local Hukkatta (chairman) called me to every event. Law enforcers also were in touch with me. But everything changed very quickly. “When the other Rohingyas began to flee after the army burned down their home, the local administration assured me that I would be unharmed, but when I refused to pay the bribes they asked in exchange for my safety, they fell back on their word,” he recounted. He no longer trust the Myanmar government and wants to stay in Bangladesh. Many well off Rohingya families had to flee even after bribing the Myanmar military, as Bangla Tribune recently reported the stories of Abdur Gafur, 42, of Maungdaw, Azharul Haq, 44, Rashidhang area, and another Zohar, who used to be the chairman of his local government council in Rakhine. As of October 24, UNHCR reported that 603,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh since the latest military crackdown began in Rakhine in August 25.