When the UN last week described these squalid camps as, "like
hell on earth" they weren't even referring to the fiery heat of the
sun which drills down on ever lengthening queues, on children, on
babies and mums in black burkas as they wait for hands out of food.
Kutapalong is claustrophobic and congested and, for some,
overwhelming. This woman collapsed at noon. No-one rushed to help her.
Men nearby wouldn't touch her, it's culturally taboo. The toddler just
sat there, confused. In her delirious state Nur was left to lie in the blistering sun
until two women who didn't know her came to her aid. Paramedics arrived
and as they took her blood pressure the local officials in charge of aid
distribution tucked into their lunch. We would later learn of some
of the terrible things she had suffered and seen, her brother, and
in-laws all killed by the Myanmar military. Her sister-in-law raped,
then murdered. Nur had been the first to arrive, exactly two months
ago. Inside a small clinic, she collapsed again and then slowly
recovered and rehydrated. The lady
is already nine months pregnant lady. She's nine months pregnant.
She doesn't take any food from last, six to seven hours. All vital
signs are all good. Maybe it was the
heat, it was so hot? Yeah.
We escorted a still shaking Nur back to
her bamboo and black plastic shack. Thousands of Rohingya have continued
to stream into Bangladesh this past week and with a very, very long
lens, you can see many more of them still waiting to come on the Burmese
side of the river. Clearance operations against what the
government of Aung San Suu Kyi calls "terrorist extremists" have driven
more than 600,000 unwanted stateless Rohingya civilians into exile. The
reality is that they faced terror, burning, mass murder and mass rape.
While the Myanmar military denies that its soldiers are doing this, the use
of rape by the Burmese army has been documented over generations against
Rohingya women. In the current ethnic cleansing campaign, reports
of rape are legion. There's powerful stigma attached to rape in this
conservative Muslim society. The humiliatingly intimate nature of it
means rape often goes unreported. But one woman wanted to tell us her
devastating story. TRANSLATION:
Four soldiers gang raped me. It was so painful. I
begged them to release me, but they kicked me instead. I was
bleeding. When they stopped, I just lay there and they moved on to the
next house, where there was a young girl and a mother of three. I saw
three soldiers take the young girl inside and rape her. I don't know
what happened to the mother, there were a lot of soldiers, more than
50. It was disastrous for the women in our village. Our children were
terrified of the soldiers. I used to keep my baby on my lap as I thought
they might spare me if they saw this. But the soldiers would grab the
baby, throw her on the floor and stamp on her. Then they would rape
me. They did whatever they wanted. There were about 20 girls who were
physically exhaus ted and who just couldn't take it any more. These
girls had their throats slit.
Many
of those who have survived rape have ended up in these camps, but the
camps were not designed with women in mind. They've not really been
designed at all. It's just a hurriedly built refugee city. There
Are no segregated toilets or washing facilities for women. There is no
privacy. This woman specialises in women's hygiene but
says she doubles as a therapist, building their trust and
listening to their experiences and listening to what they say they
need. When we even establish we talk
to them separately. We ask where we can make it. What area will be
accessible for you. We identify pregnant women, elderly women and
also children, and we talk individually. I think it's really
beneficial to take everyone's opinion.
As the light faded tonight, we went back to see Nur who had
recovered enough to have spent another day in a queue. She said
that being seven months pregnant she often felt nauseous standing waiting
for hours, and yesterday wasn't the first time she'd fainted. "There's
no option though, we have to get food." As to the camp toilet issue,
it's a nightmare, she says. "The nearest one is miles away, I often
faint and fall over." It's bad, but it's nowhere near as bad as it got
back in Burma. And having literally run for their lives none of the women we
spoke to had any desire to go back.