Rohingya mothers and babies: Hungry and traumatised
Mothers recount giving birth as they fled, their children crying in hunger and their fears over long-term trauma.
Showkat Shafi | 28 Sep 2017 11:14 GMT |
Rohingya,
Humanitarian crises,
Human Rights,
Bangladesh,
Myanmar
Myanmar army attacked her village and started indiscriminately killing villagers.
Members of the persecuted
Rohingya community, Sameron, her husband, Anwar, and their three-year-old daughter, Sabiha, fled their home in Rajarbill in Myanmar's Rakhine state. It was August 25.
Heavily pregnant, Sameron ran and walked through the night with her family.
Sameron holds her newborn daughter Sadiha [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
"In the morning, we reached a village named Itella," she recalls. "The village was deserted after the army had attacked it."
They found an abandoned house with enough food items inside it to sustain them for five days.
But then the army came again. "We escaped," says Sameron.
The next stage of their journey was the hardest. The family walked for an entire day and night without any food or water.
"I don't even want to think about that pain," she says. "I had constant pain in my stomach and I was feeling sick. In the middle of this journey, I started having unbearable pain in my stomach and I would sit down and crouch in an effort to reduce it. I had gone into labour."
Tears well in her eyes as she recalls it.
"It was the most terrifying phase of my life. I somehow would keep breathing and walking. My husband would carry me and then carry my daughter, who had also started crying from the pain of walking. We were all weeping from pain, desperation and hunger."
MORE: Rohingya refugees search for shelter in Bangladesh
The family eventually reached the village of Mongni Para. There were still people living there and some of the old women helped to deliver Sameron's baby.
"We had to leave this village after five days. I was in no condition to walk but I somehow managed to reach a place from where we got on a boat to enter Bangladesh by crossing the Naf River. We had to pay 650,000 Kyat (around $477) to the boatman [for the rent of the entire boat]. He initially refused to take us because we didn't have enough money, but some people helped us," she says as she stands in a queue with her newborn daughter, waiting for medical treatment at a clinic that has been temporarily set up outside a mosque in the Bangladeshi port city of Cox's Bazar.
As a result of her strenuous journey and weak state, Sameron hasn't been able to breastfeed her baby, who she has named Sadiha. "There was hardly any food for any of us as we walked for days. How would I produce enough milk to breastfeed my daughter?" she asks.
Many others are in a similar situation.
Mayang Sari, a nutritionist with UNICEF, says "young mothers and children are the most vulnerable".
"The extremely stressful and hard conditions have led to mothers and children becoming traumatised," Sari adds. "This has made it difficult to breastfeed babies and this could become a bigger problem."
Khalida, 20, with her one-year-old daughter Shahana. "It took us five days to reach here and I consider myself fortunate that my entire family is with me," she says. "The army had invaded our village and was burning houses and killing people. We also ran to save our lives and crossed over to Bangladesh on a boat. My husband goes out in the day to get relief material and food for us. I would want to go with him and get more food, but it's tough to stand in a queue with an infant and struggle to find food." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Sona Mehar, 45, with her three-month-old daughter Mirana Begum. "I am taking care of my seven children alone," she says. "My husband was shot with a bullet in the shoulder and is getting treated in the hospital. I stand in the queue for the entire day with this baby in my arms to secure a meal." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Twenty-five-year-old Haseena with her 18-month-old daughter, Muneera. "I came here with my husband and two children. We had only managed to take enough food to last us for two days. The rest of the days we walked hungry. I had to leave my cow behind, when we ran to save our lives. I wish I could have brought her with me." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Hamida, 33, with her four-month-old nephew Yousuf. "His parents were killed. I grabbed him and brought him with me, [or] else he would have just died there alone," she says. "I have six children of my own and one of them is six months old. I have to breastfeed both of them because they cannot be given this food. It is hard for me because even I hardly get to eat one meal in a day." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Sixteen-year-old Bushra Begum with her three-month-old son Mohammad Kaisar. "We crossed over to Bangladesh on foot. It took us 10 days to reach this refugee camp in Kutupalong," she says. "I am worried for my son. I think this journey has emotionally traumatised him. He has drunk only a little milk since the day we escaped from our home. The journey was tough and there were days we went without food, and this also affected his health." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Hamida, 35, with her one-year-old son, Mohammad Alam. "They murdered my husband. I had to run to save the lives of my five small children. I have nobody to help me get the relief material and food. I need the food packets desperately to feed my children. I have been waiting in a queue for the past three hours and haven't been able to secure anything. The men are healthy and stronger and they jump and grab any aid that is thrown towards us, while women like me keep waiting," she says. [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Twenty-four-year-old Tahira with her seven-month-old daughter Rusma Akhtar. "We were sleeping in the night at our home when we heard screams outside. We saw fire everywhere outside and people screaming and running around. My husband grabbed my daughter and we ran out with others," she recalls. "All my belongings must have been destroyed. I wish I had managed to get our big family photo from the wall." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Shams-un-Nehar, 35, with her two-month-old twins, Eesa and MusaI. "I have 10 more children apart from these two and we walked for three days to reach the border. We did not get to eat a single morsel of food in these three days and I was as a result not able to breastfeed my twins. They kept wailing in thirst and hunger. It was so frustrating and painful to see them starve like this in front of me," she says. [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Yaemeena Ara, 30, with six-month-old daughter Rohana. "Our village was attacked on Eid last month, and we escaped that day. It took us five days and nights to reach here. I have six children, including her. My husband and I had to carry each child in our arms and on our shoulders, in order to cross into Bangladesh, as they could not walk for so long." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Inside the hospital treating Rohingya refugees
In a Bangladeshi hospital, Rohingya are treated for wounds sustained when the Myanmar army burned down their homes.
Topic:
Rohingya,
Myanmar,
Bangladesh,
Refugees,
Asia Pacific
'Who will take us?': Myanmar's fleeing Rohingya Muslims
Forced out of their home country, Rohingya Muslims share their experiences of crossing to Bangladesh.
Topic:
Asia,
Myanmar,
Rohingya,
Human Rights,
Humanitarian crises
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/in...abies-hungry-traumatised-170925084205580.html
01:15 PM, September 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:18 PM, September 28, 2017
Why China, Russia should back UN action against Myanmar
A Rohingya refugee cries as he holds his 40-day-old son, who died as a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip while crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, on September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Shakhawat Liton
Political memories are wafer thin. Three years ago when the UN Security Council held a discussion on the occasion of the twentieth commemoration of Rwanda genocide, China and Russia joined other members of the council to air their voices against genocide. With their support the UNSC unanimously passed a strongly worded resolution renewing its commitment to fight against genocide.
But three years down the line, the global body now found the duo changed their stance to take action against what the UN termed "a textbook case of ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar. In March this year, China backed by Russia vetoed an UNSC resolution to censure Myanmar government for atrocities against Rohingya by the security forces. After eruption of the ongoing violence against Rohingya last month, China and Russia again sided with Myanmar. Their stance put the UN at a risk of being failed again to deliver on its core goal--prevention of genocide.
Lack of political commitment of the big nations enjoying veto power in the UNSC made the world body unable to stop genocides in some countries in past. But an appalling failure in Rwanda causing massacre of 800,000 people in only 100 days in 1994 forced the UN and other world leaders to seek apology for this.
READ MORE:
UN Security Council meets Thursday on Rohingya crisis
Twenty years after the genocide in Rwanda, the Security Council in 2014 unanimously passed the resolution and condemned without reservation any denial of the genocide and called for international cooperation for timely prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
Before passage of the resolution, China and Russia along with other members of the UNSC issued strong worded statements against genocide and renewed its commitment to fight it.
Chinese diplomat Wang Min said the unprecedented carnage that occurred in Rwanda should be remembered forever. Lessons learned from the genocide in Rwanda had been considered by the international community to improvements in conflict prevention and resolution, he said.
"Preventing genocide also required that Governments protected their civilians and that all parties abide by humanitarian law. For its part, the international community should acquire a deep understanding of the situation on the ground, as well as strengthen coordination efforts for protecting civilians," he asserted.
The Russian diplomat, Vitally Churkin, said the tragic events in Rwanda should have and could have been prevented. The Second World War's harsh lessons learned from horrific Nazi actions against his and other countries had demonstrated that the signs of genocide should have been recognized in other situations. And yet, the international community had failed to see genocide as it unfolded in Rwanda, he added.
"The United Nations had truly betrayed Rwanda and the cost of inaction was 1 million lives. Those mistakes of the past must be corrected. It was important to among other things recognise and prevent incitement of violence over ethnic differences," he said.
The diplomat of France, Gerard Araud, though his country along with USA prevented the UN from intervening timely to stop Rwanda genocide also said the Security Council must renew its commitment to do everything possible, so that the lessons of the horrors of the past were not repeated.
The statements made by the diplomats of China and Russia demonstrated their concerns about genocide. But their present stance on Myanmar does not match with that spirit.
Ahead of the UNSC's today's meeting on Rohingya issue, the one positive thing is that in the wake of global outcry China and Russia has relaxed to some extent their stances on Myanmar two weeks before. This development helped the Security Council to issue a statement in middle of September asking Myanmar to end violence.
But the call fell flat. This means a mere call can not put enough pressure on the Myanmar government and military to stop atrocities against Rohingyas. The world body must take tougher actions like imposing sanction on Myanmar and for this support of China and Russia is a must. The duo should honour their commitment they made in 2014 along with other members of the Security Council and back the Security Council's move to take any strong action to end "the ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar. If they fail to do so, they will be blamed for the UN's failure to prevent the genocide in Myanmar as USA and France were held largely responsible for the global body's failure in Rwanda.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...tions-security-council-action-myanmar-1468975
Conflict-hit Rakhine a magnet for Chinese cash
Agence France-Presse
Published at 05:04 PM September 28, 2017
This picture taken on September 27, 2017 shows burnt houses in Maungdaw in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state AFP
Rakhine, a vast area of farmland, coast and off-shore gas reserves, has been roiled by communal violence for decades, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims
Battered by global outrage over an army crackdown on Rohingya, Myanmar has found comfort in an old friend – China, an Asian superpower whose unflinching support is tied to the billions it has lavished on ports, gas and oil in violence-hit Rakhine state.
Close to half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the last month after a militant attack sparked a vicious military campaign that the UN has called “ethnic cleansing”.
China, which is expected to speak later Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis, has fallen out of step with much of the world in condemning the army-led crackdown.
“We think the international community should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the stability of its national development,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said earlier this month.
That support was far from unexpected from an ally who ploughed cash into Myanmar even as its economy choked under a half century of military rule and US sanctions.
Most of those sanctions were rolled back in 2014 as a reward for democratic elections. But those freedoms meant little to Beijing anyway.
Between 1988 and 2014, China invested more than $15 billion in the junta-run country, according to its official Xinhua news agency, mostly in mining and energy. It also propped up the pariah military regime with weapons.
“They have a few major economic projects under way with the Myanmar government,” said Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, Southeast Asia expert at the French Institute for International Relations.
That includes a planned $9 billion deep-sea port and economic zone in Kyaukpyu, south of the epicentre of the recent violence, by Beijing’s massive CITIC investment group slated for 2038.
China has already pumped money into the restive state.
In April this year, a $2.45 billion pipeline from Rakhine to China’s Yunnan province opened, securing a key route for Beijing to import crude from the Middle East.
That same month, Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy aims to hook in China’s neighbours with huge trade and infrastructure projects, rolled out the red carpet for his Myanmar counterpart Htin Kyaw in Beijing.
Valuable land
Rakhine, a vast area of farmland, coast and off-shore gas reserves, has been roiled by communal violence for decades, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims.
Clashes erupted last October when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out deadly attacks on unsuspecting border police.
Swathes of land have been abandoned with scores of Rohingya villages burnt to the ground allegedly by the Burmese army and Rakhine mobs.
“The land freed by the radical expulsion of the Rohingya might have become of interest to the military and its role in leading economic development around the country,” said Saskia Sassen, sociology professor at Columbia University.
“Land has become valuable due to the China projects,” she added.
The government said this week it would manage all fire-damaged land in Rakhine for “redevelopment” purposes, without elaborating.
It is not clear what that might mean for the masses of Rohingya who have been pushed into Bangladesh over the past month, with questions looming about how or when they could return.
Despite its natural resources, Rakhine is one of Myanmar’s poorest states – some 78% of the population live below the poverty line, nearly double the national average.
Ethnic Rakhine, who remain deeply suspicious of the motives of Myanmar’s Bamar majority, have seen scant benefits from increased investment in the area.
There is also discomfort among the public with Chinese influence across Myanmar.
“These massive Chinese projects in Rakhine state have deeply upset local populations who have not seen any positive fallout,” said Alexandra De Mersan, Rakhine expert and researcher at the French School of Oriental Studies (Inalco).
An August report by a government-backed commission on Rakhine’s troubles, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, echoed alarm about who is really benefiting from investments in the area.
But Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that development is a top priority for the region, even as rights groups have warned against investing in Rakhine.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/28/conflict-hit-rakhine-magnet-chinese-cash/
Economic geopolitics of the Rakhine crisis
M Sakhawat Hossain | Update: 19:45, Sep 28, 2017
The total number of Rohingya presently in Bangladesh, driven out of Myanmar recently and previously, exceeds 900,000. This is a difficult crisis for an over-populated country like Bangladesh, though it has no hand in the matter. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appealed to the world conscience and the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to come forward resolve the matter.
Other than Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, no other OIC member has put pressure on the Myanmar government. The European Union has issued strong warnings against ethnic cleansing, but has taken no effective measures to do anything about the issue. The UK has imposed a degree of pressure. The US has condemned the atrocities and has committed assistance for the Rohingya refugees. India has sent relief too. But India, China and Russia have sided with Myanmar. Though the UN has taken a stand supporting Bangladesh, nothing tangible can be done without the cooperation of these big powers.
The support of these countries in favour of Myanmar is shaped by economic and geopolitical interests in the region. These reasons make Myanmar more important to them than their bilateral relations with Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has resolved India’s major geographical limitations. We have long-standing economic, military and trade ties with China. The present government took great strides to improve relations with Russia, which include purchase of US$ 1 billion worth of arms and cooperation in the nuclear sector. Both India and Russia lent their full support during Bangladesh war of liberation.
Despite all of this, they have sided with Myanmar. One must understand the geopolitical and economic stand of these countries in connection with Myanmar to understand their present position concerning the ethnic cleansing and atrocities in Myanmar.
In context of India’s ‘Act East’ the country has several projects centred in Myanmar. From a geopolitical stand, one of their main objectives is to counter China’s extended influence in the Bay of Bengal off the shore of the Rakhine state. Their biggest challenge to China here is the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Project. The Modi government has released US$ 500 million for the project so far.
The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project is a project that will connect with the Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar by sea. In Myanmar, it will then link Sittwe seaport to Paletwa via the Kaladan river boat route, and then from Paletwa by road to the India-China border. It will then go on to the Indian state of Mizoram. Once the Kaladan project is complete, South Bay of Bengal will be used to transport cargo from Haldia in Kolkata to Sittwe. China has significant presence here.
India has two major geopolitical viewpoints in this regard.
Firstly, it has its eyes on China’s One Belt One Rood project. It wants to curb China’s influence in this region. In the meanwhile, on 17 July for the first time China took unrefined Saudi oil by pipeline up to Kunming.
India’s second objective is to reduce the use of the Siliguri corridor, referred to as the Chicken Neck in geopolitical jargon, and create a strategic alternative route.
The Chicken Neck of Siliguri Corridor was the only connecting route between India and its northeast states. It is just an 18 mile stretch between Bangladesh and Nepal and very close to the Chinese border.
It may be recalled that the Akhaura-Tripura road link has been established via Bangladesh’s Bhairab and a railway link is underway. This linkage will reduce India’s dependence on the Siliguri corridor.
The long-standing bone of contention between India and China is China’s claim to a northern part of Arunachal. China still retains this claim. Only recently, Indian and Chinese troops confronted each other at Dokhlam, a connecting point at Bhutan. These tensions have egged India on further for a separate route and the Kaladan project can even be an alternative to the proposed corridor through Bangladesh.
On top of this all, India is on the best of terms with Myanmar’s present military and civil leaders. The Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing paid an eight-day visit to India in 2015. And when the homes of Rohingyas in Rakhine were being burnt down, Myanmar’s naval chief was visited India and won Indian support. Military cooperation between India and Myanmar has been expanded.
India has proposed selling patrol boats to the Myanmar navy and has also committed selling arms to the military. Delhi’s geostrategic analysts say that while the whole world is castigating Myanmar for its atrocities, India is siding with it in order to counter China’s influence.
India is rid Rakhine of Rohingyas in its own interests. They regard Rohingyas as a risk factor. Even though the Rohingyas are in such a distressed state, the Indian government has ordered that 40,000 of them be sent back. The Indian judiciary has halted this move for the time being, but their fate in India will be decided upon shortly.
China is still ahead of India in its influence over Myanmar. It has established and begun operating a fuel oil terminal in the Rakhine region. This pipeline is a long-standing plan of China to ensure its geostrategic presence in the Bay of Bengal.
A natural gas pipeline has been laid down parallel to the oil pipeline. A total of 12 billion cubic metres of gas flows through the pipeline annually, of which 20 per cent is used by Myanmar. US$ 2.5 billion has been invested in this pipeline alone. In all, investment of US$ 18 billion has been planned for the Rakhine state.
There had been a lot of opposition to the Chinese pipeline in the Rakhine state due to land acquisition, environmental harm and disruption of the fishermen’s livelihood. The Myanmar government dealt with this firmly and removed the Rohingyas to settle them in two camps in a camp near Sittwe.
Security has been stepped up for the pipeline not just in Rakhine, but cantonments have been established all over the region. In Rakhine alone there are three regional commands. The 16 Light Infantry Division’s 10 Infantry Battalion is in charge of Operation Clearance against the Rohingyas. The army chief himself is in overall charge. Laying this pipeline, and particularly setting up the oil terminal, is a move by China to bypass the Malacca strait.
* M Sakhawat Hossain is former Election Commissioner, columnist and PhD researcher and can be contacted at
hhintlbd@yahoo.com.
This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/161171/Economic-geopolitics-of-the-Rakhine-crisis
