Sitting on the muddy ground outside her makeshift hut comprising
one room at Kutupalong camp, 56-year-old Dilara waits for her two sons who got
lost in Myanmar. She had six children. She witnessed one of her sons being
brutally killed in Myanmar. She, somehow, managed to cross the border along
with three children and now her empty eyes are waiting for her two children who
were left behind. The sight of her son being hacked to death sent shivers down
her spine. "What was his fault? Nothing. I don't know how my other two
sons are. Are they alive or dead? Only Allah can tell," says Dilara.
She is not the only one. Every Rohingya refugee living in
the Kutupalong-Balukhali settlements has their own horrific and brutal story to
tell.
However, the Myanmar military has denied that its
soldiers raped or killed any Rohingya women.
Lakhs of orphaned children stay in these camps with no
one to take care of them. The refugees take care of each other in the only hope
of returning to their motherland where their families have lived for centuries,
where their grandparents lived, where home is.
Noor Hasan, wiping her tears, said that her child and
husband were cut into pieces in her own country. The last word that she heard
from her husband was 'run'. Holding another child in her arms, she ran towards
the borders along with other villagers.
"They (Myanmar military) burnt my home, caught my
husband and another child and cut them into pieces in front of me," she
said.
Hasan's neighbour, Gul Begam, has a similar tale to tell.
She is waiting for her daughter to return. She had two daughters; one was
killed and another lost. "They killed my daughter in front of my eyes. Her
name was Menwara Begam. My other daughter got lost when we were walking towards
the Bangladesh border," Gul Begam said.
A seven-year-old boy, Mubhir, came to Bangladesh sitting
on his father's shoulders. He misses his school and friends who were lost
during the exodus. The remaining families, including his own, were persecuted.
Even after being killed, raped and robbed of their homes,
they want to return to their villages. "We want peace. We want to return
home. That is our home. Please help us in getting back to our families,"
another refugee urged.
‘Ethnic Cleansing’
Currently, more than 11.5 lakh of Rohingya are living in
the camps. Around 7.5 lakh people took shelter in the territory of Bangladesh
in four days after the noon of August 25, 2017.
Source: DNA