Arakan News Agency
It does not take much time for news from Arakan in Myanmar’s western coast to reach a camp for Rohingya refugees at Kalindi Kunj, a locality in the South East periphery of New Delhi, adjoining the Yamuna river.
“I have not heard from my family members for the past 10 days,” said Abdul Kareem, a Rohingya refugee who migrated to India in 2009. “The last time we spoke over the phone, my brother told me that some military men have removed the fence of our house. Now since they have not called up or taken my call for so long, I fear that something is wrong.”
Over the past few weeks, Burmese security forces have launched an offensive in Arakan state, which is dominated by the Rohingya – a minority ethnic Muslim group in the predominantly Buddhist nation who have been persecuted for decades. The military has been accused of indiscriminately targeting ordinary Rohingya. Thousands of Rohingya have fled the country since the offensive started. The crackdown has drawn international condemnation. A senior United Nations official was quoted in the media as saying that Myanmar was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims while Malayasian Prime Minister Najib Razak has referred to the action as “genocide”.
Recalling news from home that he received last month from a relative, Kareem narrated how the Rohingya were unwanted both in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh.
“Some houses in a village were set on fire by the military,” he said. “Around four to five inhabitants of those houses later managed to cross the border and reach Bangladesh. They were caught there and asked to go back immediately. When they were crossing the river to return to Myanmar, they were shot dead by the military.”
In the neighbouring house, Abdullah, the youngest of seven brothers of which four still live in Myanmar’s Arakan, is worried about his older brother back home. He said that Army personnel had called his brother on Monday, and asked him to report to the nearest Army camp at the earliest. “We spoke on Monday evening,” he said. “I asked my brother to go there with his wife, who is a Burmese by ethnicity, for his safety. I am expecting his call soon.”
Abdullah left Myanmar for Bangladesh in 2012, and moved to India that same year. He works as a security guard at a Delhi University college. He said that he is paid in daily wages, and does not get a regular salary, as other than a refugee card, he does not have any document that will enable him to enter into a contract with an employer.
“On Monday, my brother informed me about how 10 boys in the village were picked up by Army personnel and thrashed mercilessly,” he said. “A cattle shed in the village was also put on fire and the cattle have now gone missing.”
Set up by a non-governmental organisation in 2012, the Rohingya camp in Kalindi Kunj is home to around 48 families. Several Rohingya refugees in the city also live in areas like Vikas Nagar in North Delhi and Khajoori Khas in the North East of the national capital. However since there are no such camps in those areas, they have to rent rooms.
Source : Scroll
