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Zawbader Hattu, 31 (left), sitting at a government-run shelter for women and children in Phang Nga in southern Thailand, on June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
July 23, 2013
PHANG NGA, Thailand - Record numbers of stateless
Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Myanmar following two
bouts of sectarian violence last year that left scores dead and
some 140,000 displaced, most of them Muslims.
Estimates on the number of people leaving on boats
from the Bay of Bengal between June 2012 and May 2013 range from 27,000 to
nearly 35,000 - the biggest exodus in years.
Some passengers were from Bangladesh but most
were Rohingya, who have lived in Myanmar for
generations but are denied citizenship.
Zawbader Hattu, 31, was one of them. Detained in a
government-run shelter in southern Thailand with about 60 other women and
children since February, she told Thomson Reuters Foundation why she left
Myanmar.
“The main reason we left Myanmar is because we
couldn't get peace of mind.
“We’ve lived in Sittwe all our lives and we've been
discriminated against. We have many graduates in my family and none of them
could find decent jobs. We considered the government like our mother and father
and expected it to help us, but it didn’t.
“On the afternoon of the 10th June last year, our
village was torched. We tried to run away on small boats. The riot police shot
at one of them, putting a hole in it. It sank. Eight of our relatives drowned.
I saw that with my own eyes.
“We hid in a village in Pauktaw for a month and
three days. Then we moved to Dapaing in Sittwe. Life was difficult and on
January 13, 16 of us - myself, my four kids, sisters and brothers and in-laws -
left Myanmar at midnight. My husband took a boat that left days later.
“It was a fishing boat we bought ourselves. There
were 110 of us altogether including three pregnant women.
“I was afraid to go on the boat journey but I saw
what happened in June. We might die from the journey but we didn't want to die
in Myanmar.
“On the sixth day, Noru, one of the pregnant women,
gave birth. I helped with the delivery and felt we were in this situation
because of the bad government.
“I don't even hold a grudge against the Rakhines.
If the government was good we wouldn’t be on that boat.
“Many people were seasick and we didn’t shower for
the whole trip. If we wanted to go to the bathroom, the men helped by covering
the woman with a cloth from all sides so nobody could see.
“After 12 days, around the end of January, we
reached Ranong (a province in Thailand bordering southern Myanmar).
“We wanted to go to Malaysia but the Thai Navy
turned up while we were still on the boat. They gave us food, pointed in the
directions of Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand and told us to go where we wanted,
but we had very little petrol left. So we came back to Thailand after spending
two nights in the middle of the water.
“We were all crying and praying, thinking we were
going to die if we couldn’t reach (Thailand). When we got close to land, I saw
these massive rocks. Our boat then hit one of the rocks and broke up. The men
rescued the children and women. Luckily nobody died.
“We then started walking. I remember walking on
steep mountain slopes. It was very hard. After two nights of walking we reached
Kuraburi. After staying there for 5 days, the Thai authorities found us and
arrested us.
“We were questioned at the police station. They
separated men and women and we were brought to the shelter in vans. It was
February.
“I made contact with my husband a couple of weeks
ago. He made it to Malaysia.
“What is going to happen to us? We hear we’d be
sent back to Myanmar.
“I don’t want to betray the people at the shelter
or the Thai government. But it's better to poison us then send us back to
Myanmar.”
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