Burned alive, this is how a Rohingya child dies

Children burned alive, raped and lifeless bodies thrown into cisterns. At least 6700 Rohingya died in a single month, including 730 children under the age of five. Horrors collected in a survey by Doctors Without Borders collected among refugees in Bangladesh.

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Children burned alive, raped and lifeless bodies thrown into cisterns. There are at least 6700 i Rohingya died in just one month, including 730 children under the age of five. Horrors described in an investigation by Doctors without borders collected among refugees in Bangladesh.

From 25 August to 24 September 2017, at least 6.700 Rohingya died from violence in Myanmar, Rakhine State; out of 9 thousand total confirmed deaths, in 71.7% of cases the cause is directly linked to violence.

Shot by guns, burned alive in their homes, raped, beaten and killed by the explosion of mines: children are the first victims of this horror that has been going on since last August 25 when the army and police of Myammar, in addition to some local militias, they launched the evacuation operation in Rakhine State in response to the attacks of the Army for the salvation of the Rohingya of Arakan.

Since then, more than 647.000 Rohingya have fled Myammar to find refuge in Bangladesh, where today they live in overcrowded camps and in poor hygienic conditions.
“We have met and talked with survivors of the violence in Myammar and what we have found is disconcerting. There is a very high number of people who have reported losing a family member to violence, sometimes in the most heinous ways, ”said Sidney Wong, MSF medical director in a press release.

Burned alive, this is how a Rohingya child dies

The data collected are the result of six retrospective mortality analyzes conducted in early November in different areas of the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, just beyond the border with Myanmar.

“Those who manage to cross the border say they have been a victim of violence in recent weeks. There are also very few independent aid organizations able to access the Maungdaw district, in Rakhine State, and for this reason we fear for the fate of the Rohingya who are still there ”, continues Wong.

A situation that has also been documented by S in the report "The horrors I will never forget" which contains testimonies of women and children who have suffered systematic violence, rape and forced evictions.

The words are dramatic:

“Some soldiers took me and two other girls and took us to a house. They hit me in the face with a shotgun, kicked me in the chest and beat my arms and legs. Then I was raped by three soldiers. They abused me for about two hours and at times I passed out, ”says a 16-year-old girl in the report.

The soldiers broke her rib.

“It hurt a lot and I could hardly breathe. Even now I have difficulty breathing, but I have not gone to a doctor because I am too ashamed ”.

Hosan (invented name), 12, fled his village to Bangladesh after the military began attacking people with machetes. While on the run, Hosan stopped in an abandoned village in hopes of finding food and water.

“At one point I approached a tank and saw that inside there were at least 50 lifeless bodies floating in it. I can't get the sight of those swollen bodies out of my head or the burning smell of burning houses. They are horrors that I will never forget ”.

The testimony of Rehema, a 24-year-old woman, also emerges from the report by Save the Children, who said she witnessed with her own eyes the scene of a woman and her child being burned alive.

“I saw a soldier sprinkle a woman who was several months pregnant with gasoline and immediately set her on fire. I also remember another soldier who snatched a child from his mother's arms and threw him into the fire. He was called Sahab and he was not even a year old. I will never be able to forget his cries ”.

“Almost every child we have spoken to has witnessed things that no child in the world should be exposed to. Many of them are deeply traumatized by what they have been through and are now living in a place where no child should live, "he says. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, director general of Save the Children International.

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