THE ROHINGYA IMPASSE!
I vividly remember Azizul's face.
He was a 15-year-old Rohingya teenager when I met him, or whatever was left of his unconscious body, at a Cox's Bazar hospital. The time was early September, 2017.
When the Rohingya exodus was no longer a secret with charities involved and journalists started keeping tally of how many have arrived in Bangladesh from the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar, Azizul was also trying to flee from his burning village with his family.
They were escaping from living nightmares -- the Myanmar security forces and collaborating Rakhine Buddhist militias -- wielding automatic weapons and machetes to their head and neck.
While watching his six continuously and walking miles through the hilly exhausting terrain to seek refuge in the neighbouring country, Azizul didn't realise that his story was about to end.
He stepped on a landmine near the border.
The kid was rushed to a hospital inside Bangladesh; his both legs, penis, testicles and few fingers were blown. We went to see him. He probably was high on painkillers, who knows, but in his bare consciousness he was muttering 'oh mother, buy me a mango juice!' But Rashida, as obvious it was, didn't have any currency on her to buy her dying son that was his -- apparently -- final wish.
Azizul's condition deteriorated drastically and he passed away within a week. I cried -- cause I was on the verge of hitting PTSD -- and I'm sure my readers wept as well. But life went on.
All these time after, now I am writing his story again. Azizul's grave has turned him into earth now, I'm sure. Death is inevitable. But he, like thousands of other Rohingya kids, did not deserve to die the way they did. The prowess of men's greed can flatten civilisations so easily. And the dead children are the worst victims of it.
Four years later, with more than a million Rohingyas living in inhuman state squashing endangered elephant sanctuary, getting involved in serious narco-crimes, and desparately gasping for a better life, the entire crisis seems to turn into a ship without a compass.
Dignified and safe passage home of the Rohingyas should have been the key concern -- which is awkwarly being downplayed by the world patrons -- but the refugees are being either ignored or relocated. They are trying to take rickety boatrides to reach better places they dream of to be utopia.
While the host -- Bangladesh -- should have been only receiving praises for whatever tolls it is taking over this crisis for years; they are often becoming the subject of international ridicule as authorities handling these problems often seem like they are not very sure of their next course of action.
What a hot mess!
With the current condition inside Myanmar as majority-Rakhine buddhist militias are apparently controlling the region while fighting the junta government, future of the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh became further uncertain.
It is probably only a matter of time they start feeling they already hit the rockbottom of their ill-fate and no more backsies.
I, as a front-row spectator of the entire fiasco, can only wish them well. With the opening of the fresh Afghan refugee crisis front, I'm nearly sure you, the Rohingyas, won't be able to make it to the international headlines for a while.
I as a believer can only pray that God may help you all in your future endeavours.
-- SAM Jahan, Journalist