101 EAST
THE ROHINGYA EXODUS
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101 EAST
THE ROHINGYA EXODUS
TIMECODE |
DIALOGUE |
10:00:00 |
GFX: 101 EAST |
10:00:06 |
STEVE
CHAO (VO): For generations, Muslim Rohingya
in Myanmar have faced persecution. In August
this year, armed Rohingya fighters fought back, attacking security checkpoints. It led to a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military,
prompting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Now they’re struggling to survive in crowded,
muddy camps. |
10:00:35 |
STEVE
CHAO: I’m Steve
Chao. On this episode, 101 East investigates
the uncertain future facing a people unwanted, and unable to return home. |
10:00:46 |
GFX:
THE ROHINGYA EXODUS A FILM BY DREW AMBROSE & TIFFANY ANG ALJAZEERA |
10:00:56 |
HASINA (DUBBED): At 8 am on Wednesday, they came and started
shooting. The men were stabbed and slaughtered. It took them until the afternoon to kill all
the men. After the men were killed, they
took away the women who had children. When
they took the mothers, they threw their children to the ground, and killed them. |
10:01:37 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Such stories of horror and fear have driven
more than 600,000 Rohingya out of Myanmar.
Hour after hour, the stream of refugees crossing the border into Bangladesh
never ends. The numbers and speed of this
exodus surpass anything seen in recent times.
Exhausted, traumatised, young and old struggle through the mud. |
10:02:11 |
DREW AMBROSE: Some of these refugees have been walking for
three days, in the rainforest, in searing heat, in weather like this. But this is only the beginning of the hardship. |
10:02:25 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): The starving Rohingya take any help on offer. The Bangladeshi Army has set up this aid post
for the new arrivals. They’re desperate
now. But these refugees say they are fleeing
something far worse - decades of persecution from Myanmar’s government and military. The surge in violence over recent months has
been described by the UN as ethnic cleansing.
Others have called it genocide.
|
10:02:58 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): They take the babies and throw them into the
blazing fire. If we try to rescue them,
they shoot us. |
10:03:09 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Mujibur Rahman is only 19. |
|
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): They beat us, burnt us, slaughtered us. My uncle was murdered when he went to get his
cattle. People cannot move freely from
one place to another. They shoot us and
kill us. They tell us to go back to Bangladesh. |
10:03:36 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Escaping in the middle of the night, he led
14 members of his family to safety. |
10:03:42 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): Along the way, we always had to watch out for
the military looking this way and that, to check whether the route was safe. If they saw us in the jungle, they would shoot
at us. That’s how we came here by walking,
and fearing that the military would kill us along the way. |
10:04:09 |
MALE
(DUBBED): How many people? MALE
(DUBBED): 15. MALE
(DUBBED): 15? MALE
(DUBBED): Yes. |
10:04:14 |
DREW AMBROSE
(VO): Mujibur joins the queue for rations
of rice, sugar and a little cash. |
10:04:18 |
MUJIBUR
(DUBBED): Be careful ... go slowly. |
10:04:25 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Then he and his family are packed onto a truck
headed for the refugee camp. It will
be a bumpy two hour journey. |
10:04:39 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): From morning to night, the refugees are dumped
by the side of the road near the camps, with no idea what to do next. |
10:04:49 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): We have never been here. We don’t know anybody. So we were just sitting there, wondering where
we should go. |
10:05:07 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): The next morning, we find Mujibur and his family
sheltering in a school. The ordeal is beginning
to take a toll on everyone. |
10:05:18 |
MUJIBUR (SUBTITLES): I’m starving this morning. We ate last night, but today there’s no food. We’ll just have to share what little we have. We can take it ... but the children cannot. |
10:05:38 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Mujibur is overwhelmed. |
|
MUJIBUR (SUBTITLES): Where will we stay? I don’t know anywhere here ... Otherwise I
could go somewhere and do something. |
|
DREW AMBROSE
(VO): His mother is worried too. |
10:05:51 |
MUJIBUR’S
MOTHER (SUBTITLES): Our health is deteriorating
day by day. I’m worrying about where should
we go with the children ... to live, to eat, to stay together. MUJIBUR (SUBTITLES): I told you we shouldn’t leave. MUJIBUR’S
MOTHER (SUBTITLES): We didn’t come
because we had no food ... we came because of the torture. It’s not because we wanted the life
here. |
10:06:21 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): In Myanmar the family owned a small shop and
house. Now they have nothing. Mujibur shows us the title deeds to their properties,
but the Myanmar government does not recognise their ownership. |
10:06:36 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): They say, “This is not your country, where are
you from? You are all Bengali.” But we
have documents of our property. |
10:06:47 |
DREW AMBROSE
(VO): Rohingya like Mujibur are also denied
education, healthcare and freedom of movement. Despite living in Myanmar for generations, the
Rohingya are not considered citizens – instead, they’re branded illegal immigrants
from Bangladesh. |
10:07:03 |
DREW
AMBROSE: So where, where are we
going? Whereabouts are we headed? |
10:07:07 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): There’s no time to lose. The family will have to leave the school in
two days when classes resume. Mujibur and
his father need to quickly find somewhere to live. So they venture deep into what is now one of
the largest refugee camps in the world.
They’ve been given a phone number for someone from their village who might
be able to help them. |
10:07:31 |
MUJIBUR
(DUBBED): If I go to them, I hope they
will help me. If I can meet them, they
may help me to build a shelter. |
10:07:45 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): But the camp is chaotic and phone reception
is patchy. |
10:07:50 |
MUJIBUR
(DUBBED): This is such a big camp. I haven’t found the person I’m looking for. I don’t know where to find him. I don’t know what to do. |
10:08:01 |
DREW
AMBROSE: This camp is huge. It’s going to be like finding a needle in a
haystack. |
10:08:07 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): As night draws closer, Mujibur is losing hope. But then, he sees a familiar face in the crowd
- a fishmonger from his village. |
10:08:17 |
MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): Where is Ma Salleh? MALE
(SUBTITLES): Ma Salleh is staying over
there ... after that road. MALE
(SUBTITLES): Whereabouts over there? MALE
(SUBTITLES): There place is that side,
ours is the other side. MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): Can we go there? MALE
(SUBTITLES): Yes you can go there. MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): Will you show me? Can you show us how to get there? MALE
(SUBTITLES): Yes, I’ll show you. DREW
AMBROSE: That’s pretty good news. MUJIBUR: Yes, yes. DREW
AMBROSE: Good luck. |
10:08:37 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Mujibur is eager to go. So we say farewell and agree to meet up later. |
10:08:48 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Humanitarian workers say they were caught unprepared
by the speed and size of the Rohingya exodus.
As refugee numbers soar, there’s a severe shortage of food. They have to queue for hours. |
10:09:03 |
DREW
AMBROSE: When you look into people’s eyes,
all you see is sheer desperation. But the
military are doing whatever they can to keep things under control. |
10:09:14 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Bangladeshi soldiers aren’t only coordinating
aid efforts. They’re also here to stop
Rohingya refugees from leaving the camps.
Conditions are dire. Poor sanitation
means the risk of a cholera outbreak is very real. |
10:09:32 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): International agencies have rushed vaccines
into the camps, but there’s no guarantee they can stop a health disaster. Most of the refugees are women and children. Hunger is hitting hard. |
10:09:50 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): In a makeshift medical tent run by Bangladeshi
volunteers, Hasina is hoping to get some medicine for her six week-old daughter. |
10:09:59 |
DREW AMBROSE: What symptoms does your baby have? |
|
HASINA: (DUBBED):
The baby is coughing and there’s also blood in her stool, and she cannot
drink milk properly. I don’t have money,
otherwise I could’ve gotten medicine from outside. |
10:10:16 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Back in her own shelter, Hasina tells me while
the situation here is desperate, Myanmar is no place for a Rohingya baby. |
10:10:25 |
HASINA (DUBBED): In my country, when the military comes, we leave
everything at home and just run. I have
seen them throw a baby into a blazing fire with my own eyes. I have also seen them throw a baby onto a hot
corrugated iron roof of a burning hut and the baby was cut into pieces. They snatched a baby from a mother and threw
it onto a burning fire. |
10:11:01 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): To escape the same fate, Hasina ran from her
village to save her unborn baby. After
giving birth in the jungle, she fled to Bangladesh with her family. |
10:11:12 |
HASINA (DUBBED): The baby has not had milk for three to four
days. I don’t have enough milk because
I haven’t eaten enough. |
10:11:22 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): During our time with her, Hasina’s little girl
hardly cried. We go with her to a malnutrition
clinic. |
10:11:39 |
DOCTOR (SUBTITLES): The situation is very bad ... Because the baby
is not getting enough nutrients without your milk. The is an infection in the lungs ... and we
need to give her treatment ... but we can’t do it here. |
10:11:58 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Her baby needs emergency care, and they are
sent to a hospital two hours away. |
10:12:04 |
DREW AMBROSE: The doctor before said if we don’t get this
little girl to the hospital, she might die.
|
10:12:19 |
DREW AMBROSE: I think she’s starting to realise what a grave
situation this could be. |
10:12:25 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Hasina and her daughter are whisked away to
a special paediatric ward. The hospital
staff quickly get to work, and the little girl finally shows some signs of life. |
10:12:38 |
HASINA (DUBBED): I will stay here until my baby gets well. I’m happy. I didn’t have money, so I couldn’t get treatment
until I was admitted here. |
10:12:51 |
REFUGEE IN BED:
Allah, Allah, Allah. |
10:12:57 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): This hospital treats the worst cases from the
refugee crisis. Everyone here has a terrible
story. While shielding her baby, this mother
claims she was shot multiple times by the military |
10:13:12 |
SENOWARA (SUBTITLES): The bullets hit here, and here ... and my foot. Four shots altogether. I was in the middle of a pile of dead bodies
... lying in a pool of blood. |
10:13:30 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Villagers dragged her unconscious body to safety. |
10:13:33 |
SENOWARA (SUBTITLES): It took 7 days to cross over to Bangladesh. People carried me on their backs ... we left
everything behind |
10:13:43 |
SENOWARA (SUBTITLES): My injuries are still painful. The bullet is still inside. |
10:13:47 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): In another bed, a father tells me how his six
year-old daughter was badly burnt in a rocket launcher attack. |
10:13:54 |
DREW AMBROSE: So what injuries did your daughter sustain?
FATHER (SUBTITLES): The whole of her right leg is burned ...
both legs ... burned all over, including the feet. Her legs are broken ... so the doctor has put
in two iron rods. |
10:14:15 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Myanmar denies targeting civilians and blames
the crisis on the Rohingya themselves. In August, armed fighters from the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army attacked a number of security posts with homemade weapons. Buddhist mobs and the Myanmar military hit back
with fury, razing hundreds of Rohingya villages to the ground. |
10:14:43 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Refugees say one of the most gruesome mass killings
took place in the rice farming village of Tula Toli. Two women who narrowly escaped, agree to meet
with me. |
10:14:54 |
DREW AMBROSE: These women will only speak to me inside their
hut, because they are so traumatised by what they endured, they don’t want anyone
to hear. |
10:15:04 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Inside the tent, I meet Hasina and her sister
in law, Asma. Hasina tells me the day began
with a bloodbath. |
10:15:13 |
HASINA (DUBBED): The men were stabbed and slaughtered. When they took the mothers, they threw their
children to the ground, and killed them.
|
10:15:27 |
DREW AMBROSE
(VO): Hasina’s 16 month old baby was also
killed. |
10:15:32 |
HASINA (DUBBED): When they took us, along the way, my baby was
taken from me and thrown to the ground, and then into a fire. Right in front of me. |
10:15:54 |
DREW AMBROSE
(VO): Soldiers took Hasina, her sister-in-law
Asma and two other women to a house. They
blindfolded them with scarves. |
10:16:04 |
HASINA (DUBBED): They took off all my clothes. They started raping us. After the rape, whoever was still breathing
was stabbed with a knife and left to die.
My sister-in-law was raped and hit with bamboo. I don’t know what happened to me after that. My head was bleeding and my jaw was broken. Maybe around half an hour later, they set fire
to the house. When I woke up, the house
was red with fire and the door was locked.
|
10:16:43 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Only Hasina and Asma survived the chaos. They found a hole in the wall and ran naked out
of the burning hut. |
10:16:53 |
DREW AMBROSE: Given what you endured, could you ever go back
to Myanmar? |
10:16:59 |
HASINA (DUBBED): When our house was burned, we told ourselves
that since God saved us from this, we will never go back. All of our family members died. How can we go back there? |
10:17:15 |
HASINA (DUBBED): I suffered a lot, I almost died. People said that we would not survive because
we were carried here in sacks and we were bleeding along the way. [crying] |
10:17:43 |
GFX: SEPTEMBER 2017 AUNG SAN SUU KYI: The security forces have been instructed to
adhere strictly to the code of conduct in carrying out security operations, to
exercise all due restraint and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage
and the harming of innocent civilians.
|
10:18:02 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Aung San Suu Kyi is the head of Myanmar’s civilian
government, but has no control over the military. Despite overwhelming evidence of rape, arson
and violence, the Nobel Peace Prize winner says she doesn’t know why the Rohingya
are fleeing her country. |
10:18:20 |
AUNG SAN SUU KYI: Nevertheless
we are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border
to Bangladesh. We want to find out why
this exodus is happening. We would like
to talk to those who have fled, as well as to those who have stayed. |
10:18:46 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): I’ve come to Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. It’s clear to see there’s strong support for
Aung San Suu Kyi, but only fear and anger towards the Rohingya. |
10:18:59 |
VOXPOP 1 (SUBTITLES): They attack the ethnic Myanmar people like terrorists. So Myanmar’s armed forces must fight back. |
10:19:11 |
VOXPOP 2 (SUBTITLES): I don’t want to accept back these people who
flee the country ... because they don’t want to live here. I don’t want to accept them. |
10:19:19 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Even those who’ve suffered under the violent
hand of Myanmar’s military want nothing to do with the Rohingya. Jimmy U was a political prisoner who for decades
fought against Myanmar’s military regime.
But this time he’s supporting them.
|
10:19:36 |
DREW AMBROSE: You were arrested, imprisoned and spent 20 years
in jail, treated badly by the military.
Why isn’t this another example of injustice in Myanmar? |
10:19:47 |
JIMMY (SUBTITLES): It’s a very different situation. To blame the Myanmar government, or the Myanmar
army or Myanmar people is not workable.
DREW AMBROSE: But has the military in Myanmar really changed?
JIMMY (SUBTITLES): Yup.
Yes. Now they are deeply involved
in the peace process. |
10:20:03 |
DREW AMBROSE: The United Nations, Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch have all condemned the actions of the Myanmar army. Why have they got it wrong? |
10:20:13 |
JIMMY (SUBTITLES): It is very strange ... very strange. I can’t understand why they’re making fake news. Everybody in our country has worries about Islamic
expansion in our country. |
10:20:31 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Back in Bangladesh, Mujibur, the young man I
met earlier, explains what it’s like to live with that hatred. |
10:20:40 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): To them, there’s no Rohingya ethnicity. So when they see us, they want to finish us
off. That’s why they are committing genocide. |
10:20:54 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): But Mujibur has no time to dwell on what’s happening
back in Myanmar.. Today he and his father
have started building a new home for the family on the fringes of the camp. |
10:21:06 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): The weather is unbearably hot. The whole of my body burns. The children are getting heat rash. There are no trees, there is no shelter. |
10:21:24 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Up here, you can clearly see the size of this
camp. More than 300,000 Rohingya were already
living here before the latest exodus began.
Since August, the population has tripled. Everyone here is desperately trying to survive. GFX:
DISASTERS EMERGENCY CO ... [obliterated
by timecode] |
10:21:45 |
DREW AMBROSE: When you see these makeshift huts sprawling
across the hills, you think to yourself, “What’s going to happen when the monsoon
comes? And what happens if there’s a mudslide?” |
10:21:56 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): And there are plenty of other things that could
go wrong. The shelter I saw Mujibur working
so hard to build is already destroyed.
Last night, a wild elephant trampled his home. Now he has to build a new shelter from scratch. But his first task of the day is to buy a water
jug. |
10:22:21 |
MUJIBUR (SUBTITLES): I’m from Myanmar, I’m poor. Can you give me a discount? SHOPKEEPER (SUBTITLES): Okay, I’ll give you a discount. The normal price is 450 taka ... but my
final price for you is 335 taka ($4). |
10:22:38 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): He also needs new tarpaulin sheets - but his
money is fast running out. |
10:22:44 |
MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): How long is this? SHOPKEEPER
(SUBTITLES): 20 feet. MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): How much is it? Will you sell
it for 200 taka ($2.30)? My place was destroyed
by elephants. That’s why I’m asking
for a low price. I don’t have much money
left. Please, agree with that price. SHOPKEEPER
(SUBTITLES): Do you want it? MUJIBUR
(SUBTITLES): Yes, I want it. |
10:23:12 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Mujibur is frustrated he can’t do more to help
his family . |
10:23:17 |
MUJIBUR (DUBBED): I’m not happy because I have to manage all of
the necessary things, like putting up the tent and carrying water. The children are crying and need clothes. I don’t feel happy because there is no job here. |
10:23:40 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Bangladesh is grappling with how to deal with
more than half a million people who have landed on its doorstep. The government has announced plans to build a
new mega camp. It also wants to move some
refugees to a flood-prone island. Myanmar
has also offered to take back Rohingya who recently fled, but only if they can
prove they lived there. |
10:24:04 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): And that’s if any of these people want to return. For many, there’s nothing left back home but
memories of death and brutal violence. It’s not surprising some are already planning
another way out. |
10:24:19 |
DREW AMBROSE: Hey Mujibur, how are you? Good to see you again. Down there?
Alright. |
10:24:23 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Since the wild elephant attack, Mujibur has
already built a new shelter for his family. |
10:24:29 |
DREW AMBROSE: So this is your new home? MUJIBUR (DUBBED): Yeah, I just built this. It’s not yet complete. I will finish it slowly. Since morning there’s been heavy rain, so I
couldn’t do anything today. |
10:24:47 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): But he doesn’t see Bangladesh as a long-term
solution and says if the situation doesn’t improve, he’ll turn to human traffickers. |
10:24:58 |
MUJIBUR(DUBBED): If there are no rights here, we will go wherever
we can find rights, even if we die along the way. We will go to Malaysia. If we can’t go by boat, we will walk there,
if there is a way. |
10:25:20 |
DREW AMBROSE (VO): Mujibur won’t be alone. The UN has warned the next wave of trafficking
is just beginning. Even before this latest
mass exodus, desperate Rohingya took their chances with people smugglers - only
to be abandoned at sea off the coast of Malaysia, or buried in mass graves in
Thailand. But with no country to return
to and an uncertain future in these camps, Asia’s most unwanted people will continue
to search for a place to call home. |
10:25:55 |
GFX: ALJAZEERA |
10:25:59 |
[end] |