The Rohingya…pictures by Rajib Islam

The set of pictures below are by Rajib Islam, one of the duck’s greatest friends, an amazingly talented man, a true gent and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. If you ever need a good man in Bangladesh, or anywhere, he is it.

How’s that for an intro Rajib?

Hopefully he will be putting some words to his powerful pics of the Rohingya people, but for now, here’s some info from Amnesty:

“The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burma citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade.”
“In 1978 over 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the ‘Nagamin’ (‘Dragon King’) operation of the Myanmar army. Officially this campaign aimed at “scrutinising each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally.” This military campaign directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution.”
“During 1991-92 a new wave of over a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. Rohingyas were forced to work without pay by the Burmese army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labour of Rohingya civilians by the security forces.”

And here’s Pete Brook’s opinion on the set below:

“Wow, they are incredible…”

Indeed they are…click on the first one then move on through..