Coup in Burma: among Rohingya exiles in Malaysia, powerlessness mingles with despair

Rohingya refugees from Malaysia are trying to reach their relatives back in Burma via WhatsApp or Viber.

AFP - MOHD RASFAN

Text by: Gabrielle Maréchaux Follow

6 min

The survivors of the massacres perpetrated by the Burmese army today watch with anguish what is happening in their country, where 600,000 members of their ethnic group still live.

In Malaysia, where more than a hundred thousand Rohingya live, this Burmese religious minority feels forgotten by all. 

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" 

Please be patient 

".

It's been a week since Not Aung

* has been

trying to call his family back in Rakhine State on WhatsApp or Viber, and the same message always appears on his screen.

Zaw Ning Oo * has had a little better luck with his mother who lives in Rangoon.

A week after what he calls the

coup's

“Black Monday”

, he was able to speak to her two minutes before the line cut.

But without being able to express all his anguish: " 

We are afraid that the soldiers will listen, so she did not tell me anything and I did not ask her anything 

", he explains.

Moe * had briefly had his family, still in Rakhine State, the week before the putsch.

Their daily life has been the same for several years now.

Confined at home, long before we spoke of coronavirus, with almost nothing to eat and little information on the outside world because of the internet cut almost completely since 2019. 

Refugees believe decades-long persecution of religious minorities in Burma will only worsen with coup

from Monday February 1.

Because the 600,000 Rohingyas who remained in Burma can no longer flee, reminds Not Aung: " 

the borders are impossible to cross without being killed by the Burmese or Bangladeshi soldiers

 ".

Now at the head of the country, General

Min Aung Hlaing

has always referred to the massacre of the Rohingya perpetrated by his army as a job well done.

In 2017, he assured " 

it is an unfinished task since the Second World War

 ".

His putsch did not therefore surprise the Burmese refugees in Malaysia, which would be around 150,000 according to the UN.

Rose, a 38-year-old exile, recalls that in 2017 Ko Ni, Aung San Suu Kyi's legal advisor was executed in broad daylight at Rangoon airport.

He was a Muslim and was working on an ambitious reform of the constitution.

"

 If a man who is in the light like him could be killed, you can imagine that it is even easier among our rural populations in the West

 ." 

The extreme violence of the junta, these survivors know it in their flesh.

It is shaped like stabbing scars on Zaw Ning Oo's face, a round mark left by a bullet fired at Moe's cheek.

But the words often used to describe their oppressors saddens Not Aung, who speaks six languages ​​in addition to fluent English: “The media call them soldiers, but they are in reality gangsters, often drugged.

They say they are Buddhists but from what I have read or understood about Buddhism, we should not even kill an ant, and they are killing us.

We sometimes read that Aung San Suu Kyi was in power but she was not president, she was not prime minister, she was only special state adviser ”.

Evoking the “lady of Rangoon” with these exiles from Rakhine State arouses a certain unease.

In the

Cox Bazar

refugee camp

in Bangladesh

, the news of his arrest may have sparked a party atmosphere, AFP noted, but in this suburb of Kuala Lumpur, a week later, this Rohingya community does not want to rejoice in anything.

“ 

We respected her like a mother,” Not Aung recalls, “she was our de facto leader, so all the Rohingyas asked themselves the same questions' where were you when we needed you?

Why did you deny us? '

But I try to be a good Muslim, and after having thought for a long time, being angry, I tell myself that you shouldn't think like that.

Because otherwise what do we do?

Are we blocking any attempt at a democratic process because Aung San Suu Kyi did not protect the Rohingyas?

Anyway, we have nothing, no more hope, so if some can be saved or change things, even if it is not us, fine, we pray for them, whether they are Christian Buddhists or Muslims, and those who practice civil disobedience today are heroes.

But we have nothing more to lose or gain, we slowly end our life before disappearing.

You look at us and you think our bodies are alive, but we've been dead inside for a long time

 ”.

Exiled in Malaysia for several decades, Not Aung notes that it is not only Rohingya men and women who die on their way to exile or in their country.

He may spend all his days helping his exiled community, which considers him one of its leaders, however he notes that his native region has become more and more distant with the years: “ 

I no longer know how to cook traditional Rohingya dishes, I don't dress like a Rohingya anymore.

Look I have a batik shirt.

Even the Rohingya language, I find it more and more difficult to understand those who remained in the country, I have to ask them to speak slowly.

My younger brothers and sisters don't speak it anymore because when they arrived in Malaysia they started to speak Malay and English only.

So I tell myself that in ten years perhaps the Rohingyas will have really lost everything, their country, their language, their culture

 ”.

* for security reasons the first and last names have been changed and non-Muslim first names were chosen by the interviewees, as the Rohingya refugees often have the same first names.

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