Death of
a baby as unwanted Rohingya hunt for a home
By Munir Uz
Zaman
AFP
November 26,
2016
Alam's short
life ended on Saturday in a dark, tattered tent in Bangladesh, the Rohingya
child's skeletal body succumbing to illness contracted while fleeing Myanmar
where his stateless people are under attack.
He was
six-months-old.
Alam died
hours after arriving at a makeshift refugee camp close to Teknaf, the gateway
to Cox's Bazar, a poor, densely populated coastal area already home to more
than 230,000 Rohingya refugees.
But for the
Rohingya, Bangladesh is far from a promised land.
So far
little or no aid has been provided for the new arrivals, with Bangladeshi
authorities fearing food, medicine and shelter will encourage more to cross the
border.
With her
child's emaciated body by her side, 22-year-old Nur Begum describes how a
Myanmar army raid that killed her husband and two other children forced her to
flee Rakhine State for Bangladesh with the tiny Alam.
After
three-week trip with little food, Begum and her increasingly sick child made it
to the camp in Leda, across the Bangladeshi border.
But Alam's
journey was at an end.
"I
finally had some food in the camp and thought I would be able to feed
him," his distraught mother told AFP. "But he left me before I had
the chance."
Her
baby was buried on Saturday, his body washed and then carried to a Rohingya
graveyard on a wooded hill near the camp.
Up to 30,000
Rohingya have abandoned their homes in Myanmar since early October, after
soldiers poured into the strip of land in western Rakhine state following
deadly raids on border posts.
The refugees
who have reached Cox's Bazar so far have brought with them horrifying stories
of gang rape and murder.
The Myanmar army
flatly denies the allegations.
That Myanmar
does not want its more than one million Rohingya population is not in dispute.
It refuses
them citizenship while many in the majority Buddhist country call the Muslim
minority "Bengalis" -- shorthand for illegal immigrants.
- Poorest of
the poor -
Bangladesh
provides a mixed reception to the Rohingya.
Although
people around Cox's Bazar have centuries-long historical ties with the
Rohingya, locals increasingly perceive the refugees as a crime-prone nuisance.
Only
32,000 Rohingya are formally registered as refugees.
The
remaining 200,000 scratch an existence without help from government or
charities.
And their
numbers swell with every crisis across the border in Myanmar.
To avoid
more arrivals Dhaka has blocked refugee boats from landing and called for
Myanmar to stop the exodus.
"We
have stopped several hundred boats since last week," Abu Russel Siddique,
spokesman for Teknaf Border Guard Bangladesh, told AFP.
Authorities
already tightly control aid workers and arrest people who illegally help the
minority.
"Bangladesh
has said often that it cannot sustain any more refugees, and in fact, has
refused to allow humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas because it might be a
pull factor," said Human Rights Watch's South Asia chief Meenakshi
Ganguly.
But she
added "people don't leave their homes, make perilous journeys, simply for
free blankets and medicines."
The
country's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Friday told reporters that Rohingya
arrivals would be treated humanely, but so far no aid has reached the new entrants.
That has
heaped pressure on pre-existing Rohingya refugee encampments.
"Some
15,000 Rohingya have already been living here in inhuman conditions for
years," said Dudu Mia, a head of a Rohingya camp, explaining 1,000 people
new arrivals came last week.
"There
are days many of us don't have any food either."
- 'I don't
want to die' -
Conditions
are fast-deteriorating, hitting exhausted Rohingya arrivals hard.
For
heavily-pregnant Siru Bibu, who fled by boat with four children after her
husband and other relatives were killed by an army operation, the situation
that has greeted them is dire.
"If it
goes another week, my children will starve," she said.
Rumours
abound of under-cover officials keeping strict tabs on who is giving what to
the unregistered arrivals at the camps.
On Thursday
authorities detained and immediately jailed seven people for to up to two
months for assisting the Rohingya.
"Anyone
trying to help us is warned or being arrested. As a result, the newly arrived
refugees are living in fear," a camp elder told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Driven from
Myanmar and unwanted in Bangladesh, traumatised Rohingya refugees are now
laying low.
"Police
have arrested some of our neighbours and we heard that they were sent back
across the border," Yasmin Akhter, a 25-year-old mother who was only able
to bring two of her six children to Bangladesh.
"I hope
they won't do it to us... I don't want to die."