(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Arakan Muslims, who escaped a massacre in Myanmar, have taken shelter in camps in the border villages of Bangladesh's Cox Bazaar district and struggle to survive under incessant rain in makeshift lodgings. According to UN sources, as a result of attacks by security forces that target Muslims, nearly 100,000 people have left their homes since the beginning of ethno-religious tension. To save their lives, Rohingya Muslims, with children in their arms, walked barefoot in heavy rain through the jungle to reach the coast, where they sailed to Bangladesh.
In camps where Rohingya Muslims have taken refuge since 1993, people are dependent on food aid. According to official figures, in just a single camp in Cox Bazaar, 6,000 families, a total of 70,000 people, live. A lodging that is just 15 square meters sometimes has to fit three families.
Humanitarian aid organizations from Turkey have gone to the aid of the Muslims in the camps in Bangladesh. For example, a private charity organization, Kimse Yok mu? (Is Anybody There?), distributes Ramadan provisions -- basic food items such as rice, sugar, oil and potatoes. The organization, which has had difficulty transporting aid packages to the region because of the extremely challenging nature of the area and the climate, aims to provide food aid to 15,000 people.
The organization recently hosted a fast-breaking dinner for Muslims who have escaped the persecution in Myanmar. Nearly 100 Muslim refugees participated in the dinner that was given at the house of a Bangladeshi opinion leader. In conformity with regional customs, popcorns in bowls and fruit juice peculiar to Ramadan were provided.
School children, both Bangladeshi and Arakan Muslims, attend classes at the Malbidapa Anando School, which is a couple of kilometers from the refugee camp. Rubine Aktar, the only teacher at the school, has said that all five grades take courses together in the same classroom and that conditions at the school are inadequate, with the roof leaking whenever it rains.
The latest wave of persecutions against the Muslim population in Myanmar, where 89 percent of the population is of the Buddhist faith but only about 4 percent profess Islam, started on June 3. Thousands of Muslims are believed to have been killed, and quite a large number of Muslims have been imprisoned since the tragic incidents started. And people don't know where those imprisoned are being kept.
Mosques in Arakan, where Muslims are faced with ethnic cleansing, bordering on genocide, have been closed due to the demands of Buddhist monks, who maintain that mosques serve as gathering places for Muslim protestors. No foreigners are allowed into the region except UN staff and employees of humanitarian aid organizations.
The first glimmer of violence in Myanmar occurred in June after claims that three Rohingya Muslims raped a Buddhist woman. After the event, fanatical Buddhists started killing Muslims living in Arakan province and burned houses and workplaces belonging to the minority group. Rohingya Muslims are not seen as citizens of Myanmar by nationalist Myanmar leaders, officials and fanatic Buddhists and in turn are exposed to discrimination.
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In camps where Rohingya Muslims have taken refuge since 1993, people are dependent on food aid. According to official figures, in just a single camp in Cox Bazaar, 6,000 families, a total of 70,000 people, live. A lodging that is just 15 square meters sometimes has to fit three families.
Humanitarian aid organizations from Turkey have gone to the aid of the Muslims in the camps in Bangladesh. For example, a private charity organization, Kimse Yok mu? (Is Anybody There?), distributes Ramadan provisions -- basic food items such as rice, sugar, oil and potatoes. The organization, which has had difficulty transporting aid packages to the region because of the extremely challenging nature of the area and the climate, aims to provide food aid to 15,000 people.
The organization recently hosted a fast-breaking dinner for Muslims who have escaped the persecution in Myanmar. Nearly 100 Muslim refugees participated in the dinner that was given at the house of a Bangladeshi opinion leader. In conformity with regional customs, popcorns in bowls and fruit juice peculiar to Ramadan were provided.
School children, both Bangladeshi and Arakan Muslims, attend classes at the Malbidapa Anando School, which is a couple of kilometers from the refugee camp. Rubine Aktar, the only teacher at the school, has said that all five grades take courses together in the same classroom and that conditions at the school are inadequate, with the roof leaking whenever it rains.
The latest wave of persecutions against the Muslim population in Myanmar, where 89 percent of the population is of the Buddhist faith but only about 4 percent profess Islam, started on June 3. Thousands of Muslims are believed to have been killed, and quite a large number of Muslims have been imprisoned since the tragic incidents started. And people don't know where those imprisoned are being kept.
Mosques in Arakan, where Muslims are faced with ethnic cleansing, bordering on genocide, have been closed due to the demands of Buddhist monks, who maintain that mosques serve as gathering places for Muslim protestors. No foreigners are allowed into the region except UN staff and employees of humanitarian aid organizations.
The first glimmer of violence in Myanmar occurred in June after claims that three Rohingya Muslims raped a Buddhist woman. After the event, fanatical Buddhists started killing Muslims living in Arakan province and burned houses and workplaces belonging to the minority group. Rohingya Muslims are not seen as citizens of Myanmar by nationalist Myanmar leaders, officials and fanatic Buddhists and in turn are exposed to discrimination.
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