“THE army and Buddhist leaders killed children in front of me,” said Rohingya refugee Razia Begum. The 30-year-old fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar with her two daughters – aged nine and six – after seeing soldiers setting children on fire.
“I saw some little children who were killed by being burned by fire,” she continued.
“I felt very horrible because I did not know how I could protect my children and so I left for another place.”
Begum also said her uncle was burned alive by the military and that she was forced to move around 20 times as the army continued its rampage. The military leaders in the country have denied such accusations.
Some 646,000 Rohingya refugees have now arrived at the Kutupalong camp, and that number is steadily growing.
The minority started fleeing Myanmar after a surge in violence against them, which began when militants reportedly attacked border posts in August.
Begum, a mother of two, further accused the military of targetting the food and shelter of the Muslim minority and said that her and her daughters went five days without anything to eat.
She borrowed 10,000 Burmese Kyat (around £5.50) to pay the border-crossing fee and walked for two days straight in order to reach it.
Accompanied by her sister, as well as her two daughters, Begum said that the treacherous journey saw a boat they were in almost sink beneath the water. “We nearly died,” she said.
She eventually made it to Shabrang Harbour in Bangladesh, without any food or money, but said: “Here I have shelter and I have peace.
“I am sitting in the mud but I am feeling very safe – in my country there is no safety, no peace. I am hungry but I am safe.
“I feel secure here. I’m free from what I’ve seen in Myanmar and what is happening in the villages.
“I want to stay here and not go back to Myanmar,” she added. “Here I have no worries and no tensions.
“I have no interest in returning – even after five or six years – I don’t want to go back.”
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