(Photo: Carlos Sardiña Galache) |
By Carlos Sardiña Galache
April 13, 2014
These twins were born little more than two weeks ago in a Muslim IDP camp near Sittwe. Their mother suffers tuberculosis, is very weak and can't breastfeed them. The family is so poor that they can only given them cheap powder milk not suitable for infants, so they have not received proper nourishment during their first two weeks of life. As the Burmese government has expelled all INGOs and international agencies working in the area, neither the mother nor the twins can receive any medical treatment.
By Andrew Stanbridge
January 14, 2013
Of all the challenges that Myanmar’s Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has stared down in her life, the one she faces in 2014 may be the one she fails. She seemingly willed her country to democracy, but as a freed opposition politician she has so far been unable—or, her critics say, unwilling—to help the most vulnerable members of Myanmar society, the Rohingya minority.
A year and a half ago, an outbreak of violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Sittwe, Myanmar, started a struggle that drove nearly 150,000 Rohingya from their homes and into poorly run Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. Photographer Andrew Stanbridge made multiple trips to Sittwe amidst the continuing violence to document the Rohingya’s problematic situation and uncertain future in Myanmar.
In the Muslim neighborhood of Aung Mingalar, security forces and barricades block off roads, preventing Rohingya from taking part in normal Sittwe society, which leaves them with little sources of food or work. Worse are the conditions inside the dusty camps, where those lucky enough to have the official aid buildings live 10 families to each long house. Those that are still waiting for shelter from the government are left to create makeshift tent cities out of whatever they can salvage, whether it be empty food bags from aid groups or dried rice stalks. Temperatures can vary drastically, from searing daytime heat to cold nights and monsoon rains. Access to clean water and food is limited and although toilets are some of the first things built, raw sewage still moves through open waterways. There are frequent disagreements between the police—largely members of the Burmese ethnic majority—and the Rohingya IDPs. These confrontations sometimes turn violent.
There are other oppressed minorities in Myanmar—the Shan, the Kachin, the Karen—but the Rohingya are not even recognized as a legitimate ethnic group in Myanmar, nor are they given citizenship rights. They have no voice. The question for 2014 is: Will Aung San Suu Kyi lend them hers? —Pauline Eiferman
Rohingya pick through a burned-out village for useable scraps like nails and bricks. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Young men stroll past one of the many shops that have been closed for business since the violence began. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Rohingya girls in the Muslim "ghetto" of Sittwe dress up for the Eid holiday. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Rations of sweet milk are handed out in Aung Mingalar during the celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
The entrance to one of the larger Rohingya IDP camps outside of Sittwe. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A Rohingya woman crosses a stream that separates two IDP encampments. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Many of the camps are built from salvaged materials. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A Rohingya woman stands in front of one of the "temporary" encampments. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A man and his children take refuge from the searing midday sun in the tent they call home. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A Rohingya man prays in a makeshift mosque in one of the IDP camps. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A policeman on patrol in the IDP camps shows off his tattoo. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Police train their weapons on one of the IDP camps that saw protesting earlier in the day. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
A Rohingya woman fans her husband who was shot by police forces during the protests Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
Villagers and family members surround the body of a Rohingya man killed by police gunfire during the protests. Photo by: Andrew Stanbridge |
[Top image: A burned Rohingya mosque in the town of Sittwe, Myanmar.]
Andrew Stanbridge is a Portland, OR based photographer who photographs, publishes and exhibits internationally. His most recent work shown here is the culmination of two trips to Sittwe, Myanmar to cover the aftermath of violence between Buddhists and Rohingyan Muslims. More of his work can be found at andrewstanbridge.com.
By Democratic Voice of Burma
October 19, 2013
I travelled to Sittwe in the beginning of July 2013, with the intention of documenting the situation of the internally displaced Rohingya community. When I arrived at the IDP camps, I was struck by the overwhelmingly high number of women and children in comparison to men. Bearing in mind that conflict affects the life of women in a fundmentally different way, I decided to focus on how the Arakanese-Rohingya conflict had affected the livelihoods and role of women within their community. Their stories of humiliation, rape and loss where unbearably hard to listen to, but their strength of character and resilience in face of despair revealed an unparalleled degree of humanity.
By Matt Rains & Alia Mehboob
A Rohingya boy walks by a trishaw in Paungdok, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
A Rohingya girl sits in front of a house in Paungdok, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
A local imam in Paungdok, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
Old Burmese scripts and religious texts were destroyed during Buddhist-Muslim riots in Sittwe (Lux Capio Photography) |
Anti-Rohingya messages flash ahead of a movie screening in Mrauk-U, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been fenced into Sittwe's Muslim quarter, Aung Mingalar, since June 2012 (Lux Capio Photography) |
A Rohingya man holds up a sign in Sittwe's Aung Mingalar (Lux Capio Photography) |
Local Rohingyas stand on a dirt road in Aung Mingalar, Sittwe (Lux Capio Photography) |
Small fishing villages in Sittwe were reduced to rubbish in June’s clashes (Lux Capio Photography) |
A novice monk peers out from behind a pillar in the Buddhist quarters of Sittwe, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
A lone man walks along Sittwe beach, Arakan state (Lux Capio Photography) |
Burma’s Rohingya Muslims have been described as the world’s forgotten people. Stripped of citizenship by the former military junta in 1982, many thousands have been stuck in limbo along the Bangladeshi border in northwestern Burma for decades.
Last year two bouts of vicious communal clashes thrust an international spotlight on their plight. Over 200 people were killed and some 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, were ripped from their homes. Displaced Rohingyas, who are considered illegal Bengali immigrants in Burma, are now isolated in dreary camps and ghettoes, with limited access to food, sanitation or healthcare. Buddhist nationalists and extremist groups have been blamed for stirring up hate-speech against the group, while local police and security forces have been accused of participating in the violence, described by human rights groups as a “systematic” campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Journalists Matt Rains and Alia Mehboob travelled to Arakan state in August 2012 to document the lives of Rohingya Muslims in the wake of last year’s violence.
RB News
May 25, 2013
The camps of the internally displaced Rohingyas at Thay Chaung in Sittwe got flooded due to the heavy rains. Although the government often say that they will send the displaced Rohingyas under shelters, they have not implemented anything yet. Now, the displaced people are finding extremely difficult to even sleep at night.
Thay Chaung Rohingya refugees Camp on May 24, 2013 |
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President U Thein Sein and wife Daw Khin Khin Win cordially greet Pyithu Hluttaw Representative for Buthidaung U Shwe Maung at the reception and dinner to mark 66th Anniversary Union Day in Nay Pyi Taw on 12 February 2013 |
President U Thein Sein and wife Daw Khin Khin Win cordially greet Pyithu Hluttaw Representative for Maungdaw U Aung Zaw Win at the reception and dinner to mark 66th Anniversary Union Day in Nay Pyi Taw on 12 February 2013 |
President U Thein Sein and wife Daw Khin Khin Win cordially greet Amyothar Hluttaw Representative for Rakhine State Constituency 7 (Maungdaw North) U Htay Win at the reception and dinner to mark 66th Anniversary Union Day in Nay Pyi Taw on 12 February 2013. |
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