Violence & Refugees - Cox's Bazaar, BangIadesh
the adventure
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"...the Rohingya have suffered from unspeakable atrocities..."
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It was difficult to find the right words to describe the incredible scene before us. It was September 2017. It was still early in the morning, but the day was already sticky humid. Standing atop a hill, my team and I did a 360-degree survey of the refugee camp. It stretched as far as the eye could see. Flimsy makeshift shelters littered not just the hills around us, but extended far beyond visual range into the distance.
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To describe this camp as filthy was an understatement. The densely-packed shelters covered with thin black tarps, the ever-present stench of human waste, the random scattering of trash, the stagnant pools of dirty water, the haphazard siting of new tube wells and freshly-dug, but already-overflowing, latrines....It was more slum than camp, and these features could easily conspire to rapidly spread diseases.
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To date, more than 500,000 newly-arrived Rohingya refugees were housed in many of these camps. The Bangladeshi authorities and NGOs present were already trying their best, but the speed of the influx has simply been too fast, and the scale of needs too high. The refugees had escaped from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Cox's Bazar in Southern Bangladesh. This massive exodus had been triggered by a step-up in brutal "clearing operations" by the Burmese military from 25 Aug 2017.
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Our team was here on a needs assessment mission, in order to understand the ground situation in the camps and the refugees' needs first-hand, and to explore partnership possibilities with local NGOs. These would then enable us to formulate a crisis response plan.
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We sought a deeper level of social-emotional engagement with the Rohingya refugees, and we must have sat down with several hundred refugees of varied ages. And, as we invited the different refugee groups to share their personal exodus accounts with us, we could not help but be repeatedly heartbroken for them. Often, we just sat there together and simply cried with them. This happened over and over again. Our hearts wept with every story of brutalisation, helplessness, loss and death. It was difficult to comprehend how men could commit unspeakable atrocities against other men, women and children.
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Snapshots of their many terrifying accounts included:
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“When the Burmese Military attacked our village, they burned all our houses, many with kids inside them. Some of the other kids who were already outside were thrown into the burning houses....”
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“…about 200 women were rounded up into a house. Then, 50 soldiers came and gang-raped them, before going to another village to repeat the same acts. We were made to watch, but couldn't do anything....”
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“…during our journey here, we had to move through the difficult jungle and rivers, but the Military forces were waiting for us…they shot and killed many as we ran. My uncle died…a lot of mothers had to leave their small children/babies behind in the jungle…many old parents were also left behind when they became too exhausted to move….”
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“…how can we ever forgive them? My daughter was raped and killed. His son, relatives and neighbours were all shot or cut into pieces…I cannot sleep properly now, because I just cannot stop thinking about all these....”
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Through our interviews, it soon became clear that the refugees were terribly traumatised by the atrocities of the Burmese military as well as their terrible exodus experience. There was also a lot of strong anger, even rage, within them, and many probably suffered from survivors' guilt.
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As we ponder our follow-on crisis response actions, the provision of strong psycho-social support will be no less significant than the meeting of the refugees' physical needs. Their high trauma and strong anger, if left unprocessed, might later manifest in negative and unhealthy ways. To this end, I hope that other NGOs will also start to recognise this area of need, and begin to contribute towards the filling of this important human gap.
