ORPHANED ROHINGYA BROTHERS ESCAPED A MASSACRE BUT MUST SURVIVE REFUGEE CAMP
"God saved
them."
Three months ago, these two Rohingya brothers had a loving family, a little house near a river, a worn soccer ball to play with and 15 cows for fresh milk.
It’s all gone now: The family killed. The house torched. The cows stolen.
More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims from
Burma fleeing a military crackdown have entered Bangladesh since late August, one of the most rapid exoduses in history.
The ordeal began Aug. 25, when Rohingya militants attacked Burmese police posts. Five days later, the boys’ village was inundated with soldiers who — human rights groups allege — killed, raped and burned villagers in their homes.
Shamsul, 8, and Jafar,
11, followed a stream of people to Bangladesh, two of about 1,800 children who made the terrifying days-long journey to safety without their immediate caregivers, according to UNICEF.
Many have been taken in by neighbors or extended families, authorities say, but face dangers such as child traffickers, diseases and malnourishment.
By early December, the brothers had learned
the physical landscape of the sprawling camp — which fishmonger sells the best dried fish, which adults should be avoided, which empty stretch of dirt is best for kicking a ball.
But their grief is harder to navigate.
“Everyone has parents but us,” Shamsul often says out loud, part in pain, part in wonder.
On that August morning,
soldiers came to their village toting automatic rifles and shoulder-fired rocket-launchers and sprayed the air with gunfire, according to witness accounts.
The villagers scattered, some fleeing into the jungle for safety. Jafar said he took refuge on a small hill overlooking his house and watched as soldiers beat his mother, Monira, and three of his siblings, Somuda, 15, Khurshid, 7, and Shalida, 3 months. They pushed them into the house,
barricaded the door and set the structure on fire...READ MORE
