People begging, crying and fighting for food – – this is the present scenario of the IDP camps of Akyab. September 2018 has been an especially bad month as Myanmar authorities confiscated most of the meagre rations for the desperate IDPs in Akyab township.
Before 2012, the state capital of Akyab was a mixed city where the Rakhines held only a slim majority over the Rohingyas. The scenario changed in 2012 when ethnic riots drove the Rohingya Muslims out of the town and forced the remaining populace into the ghetto of Aung Minglar. In other areas, the Muslims were herded into IDP camps where living conditions have been described by international organisations as the worst in the world. Despite such inhumane sufferings, the world looked the other way before military led operations killed more than 25,000 people and drove out most of the Muslims into neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017. However, the sufferings of the Rohingya people in the central Arakan townships of Akyab, Kyauktaw, Mrauk U and other Buddhist majority areas continue to go unnoticed. The areas aretoo far from the border and closed off to the outside world. Survivors of the genocide are gradually starving to death, without any access to proper food rations and the almost complete absence of medical facilities.
Rohingya activists have long alleged that enforced starvation of the Muslim population is a well devised plan by the Myanmar government to eliminate the population without the outside world taking notice.
The IDP camps hold no learning centres for children and nor are there healthcare facilities. These people are excluded from any access to livelihood sources. Despite all the hurdles, despite little hope for the future, our local correspondent says the Rohingyas are still surviving for the next day – – ambitiously hoping for a day out of this cage. A day they can breathe properly in a land they have always regarded as their home.
