{"id":95156,"date":"2017-07-10T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=95156"},"modified":"2017-07-17T11:50:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:50:01","slug":"in-myanmar-one-girls-plight-epitomizes-rohingya-struggle-worse-than-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/07\/in-myanmar-one-girls-plight-epitomizes-rohingya-struggle-worse-than-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"In Myanmar, One Girl\u2019s Plight Epitomizes Rohingya Struggle: Worse than Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Girl, 4, Becomes Face of Suffering Rohingya Children Starving to Death amid <\/em>\u2018Ethnic\u00a0Cleansing\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rosmaida Bibi (YouTube)<\/p><\/div>\n

6 Jul 2017<\/em> \u2014 Ever since she was born in this squalid camp for displaced members of Myanmar\u2019s ethnic Rohingya minority, Rosmaida Bibi has struggled to do something most of the world\u2019s children do effortlessly: grow.<\/p>\n

Frail and severely malnourished, she looks a lot like every other underfed child here \u2014 until you realize she\u2019s not really like any of them at all.<\/p>\n

A tiny girl with big brown eyes, Rosmaida is 4 \u2014 but barely the size of a 1-year-old.<\/p>\n

She wobbles unsteadily when she walks. Bones protrude through the flimsy skin of her chest. And while other kids her age chatter incessantly, Rosmaida is listless, only able to speak a handful of first words: \u201cPapa.\u201d \u2033Mama.\u201d \u2033Rice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Half a decade after a brutal wave of anti-Muslim violence exploded in this predominantly Buddhist nation, forcing more than 120,000 Rohingya Muslims into a series of camps in western Myanmar, this is what the government\u2019s policy of persecution, segregation and neglect looks like up close.<\/p>\n

Take a 360-degree look at life for the Rohingya in Myanmar:<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nBbJ1Q0jU6w<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a policy born of decades of military dictatorship and fear that Muslims are encroaching on what should be Buddhist land. The troubling thing today, rights groups say, is that this stance has been adopted by the administration of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate and longtime opposition leader who rose to power after her party swept national elections last year.<\/p>\n

And any hope that Suu Kyi \u2014 once lauded worldwide as a human rights icon \u2014 might turn things around has been shattered by her silence and the reality that life for the Rohingya has deteriorated by the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is worse than a prison,\u201d Rosmaida\u2019s 20-year-old mother, Hamida Begum, said of the makeshift hut they call home \u2014 the place where her daughter was born that floods with every heavy rain.<\/p>\n

Poor, unemployed, and prohibited from crossing checkpoints into more affluent Buddhist-only areas, Begum has been unable to find anyone who can help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to give her an education. I want to send her to school like all the other kids,\u201d she said as Rosmaida burrowed into her lap in Dar Paing, near the state capital, Sittwe. \u201cBut it\u2019s not possible because she\u2019s so sick … she cannot grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, have long been denied citizenship, freedom of movement and basic rights in Myanmar, a country that largely sees them as foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh even though most were born here.<\/p>\n

Although tensions in Rakhine state go back decades, the neighborhood Begum grew up in in Sittwe was mixed, and she said people there used to get along.<\/p>\n

That changed dramatically on June 5, 2012, when Buddhist mobs began attacking Muslims and setting homes ablaze. Begum fled, running barefoot so hard and so fast she realized only later that her feet were covered in blood.<\/p>\n

Today her neighborhood \u2014 where denuded trees and the destroyed remains of homes are still visible \u2014 is occupied by Buddhist squatters. Although Begum said her grandparents owned their family\u2019s house there, they have neither been allowed to return nor compensated for its destruction.<\/p>\n

Aside from a single district, Sittwe is now entirely Buddhist, and Muslims are prohibited from walking its streets.<\/p>\n

Suu Kyi has denied such policies equate to ethnic cleansing, but international rights groups insist that\u2019s exactly what they are. Suu Kyi\u2019s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Matthew Smith, who runs the advocacy group Fortify Rights, said: \u201cIt\u2019s scandalous that these internment camps still exist five years on … The reality is that there\u2019s a lot she (Suu Kyi) could be doing, but isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rohingya are no closer now to getting their rights … and in some respects the situation is much worse,\u201d he said. Over the last year, \u201cthere\u2019s been mass killing, mass rape, widespread forced labor and other violations, all committed with complete impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a Rohingya insurgent group killed nine officers in northern Rakhine state in October \u2014 the first reported attack of its kind \u2014 security forces responded by burning entire villages, raping women and killing an unknown number of people in a rampage that sent 75,000 people fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh, according to the United Nations and international rights groups. The government puts the toll at 52 dead or missing and blames extremists for the killings.<\/p>\n

Although southern Rakhine state, where Rosmaida lives, was not directly affected, the region has experienced a spike in tensions. On Tuesday, a 100-strong Buddhist mob in Sittwe killed one Rohingya man and injured six others who ventured into the city under police escort to buy boats.<\/p>\n

Suu Kyi says her administration is dealing with the issue by implementing the recommendations of a commission led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which called on the government to close the displaced camps and allow their inhabitants to return home.<\/p>\n

Most of the camps remain open, though, and Suu Kyi\u2019s administration restricts access to the region, blocking journalists from independent access to the north altogether. Last week, her government said it would also bar members of a U.N.-approved fact-finding mission from entering the country to investigate alleged rights violations by security forces against the Rohingya.<\/p>\n

Vanna Sara, a Buddhist abbot at Sittwe\u2019s Seik Ke Daw Min monastery, said harsh policies were necessary to protect Buddhists. Western Myanmar is on the frontline of a population explosion, and Muslims, he said, are trying to \u201cswallow the whole region.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t be trusted. No Muslim can be trusted. They\u2019re all scary,\u201d Sara said. \u201cThat\u2019s why, to tell you the truth, it\u2019s better that we don\u2019t live with the Muslims. That\u2019s how we feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Begum settled in Dar Paing after the 2012 violence, she tried to start her life anew. But her tragic story has mirrored that of many Rohingya. The man she married died shortly after he was detained in Malaysia, where he was trying to bring their family for a better life. Their son died a few hours after birth.<\/p>\n

Begum has since remarried, but her fisherman husband sometimes comes home from a day of work with less than a dollar, or nothing. That makes it hard to care for her biggest concern \u2014 her daughter \u2014 who is lucky just to be alive.<\/p>\n

A report issued by UNICEF in May said a staggering 150 children under the age of 5 die every day in Myanmar, while nearly 30 percent are malnourished. Although the U.N. does not have specific statistics for the camps, half of whose inhabitants are children, aid workers say the situation inside them is even worse.<\/p>\n

Begum has taken her daughter to local clinics half a dozen times, but her condition has never improved.<\/p>\n

Rosmaida is now being helped by an international humanitarian charity which is giving her ready-to-eat packets of therapeutic food paste to alleviate severe acute malnutrition, which the World Health Organization describes as \u201ca life threatening condition requiring urgent treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Begum is concerned because her daughter\u2019s appetite is so low, \u201cshe has trouble eating all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twice a day, she takes her daughter\u2019s hand and walks her through Dar Paing\u2019s labyrinth corridors, a place Rosmaida has lived in her entire life.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard, she says, because Rosmaida\u2019s tiny joints often hurt. She can\u2019t walk far, and she\u2019s never been able to run.<\/p>\n

Soon, Begum will have another reason to worry: She is pregnant again.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Esther Htusan contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 apnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Girl, 4, Becomes Face of Suffering Rohingya Children Starving to Death amid \u2018Ethnic Cleansing\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-exposures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}