Our Life as Rohingya Refugees
POETRY FORMAT, 9 Aug 2021
Austin Jani | FORSEA - TRANSCEND Media Service
Displaced Rohingya people in Rakhine State. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, flickr FORSEA
2 Aug 2021 – A poem written by a young Rohingya poet, from Rakhine state, living in Rangoon.
Stand by the innocent people
who are seeking peace
Stand for the refugee, people
who are seeking freedom
It’s not because we are a minority
but because we are a people, your fellow humans.
We don’t get
adequate shelter to live
sufficient meals to eat
enough clean water to drink
Just because we are Rohingyas.
For Rohingyas, Refugees,
no school to enroll
no teacher to teach
no work to hold
no permit to go anywhere
What can we do in this prison called the Earth?
Being Rohingya Refugees,
No book to call our own
No book read for my education
No pen to write my black scarp
What we are facing day-to-day
No paper to draw up our new plans
No path to realize our goals
What kind of fucking life is this – for us?
Being Rohingya Refugees,
No solidarity hand to wipe my tears
When they form a great ocean
Still, no one hears our cries
But crying again and again
Just to save my dignity.
Being Rohingya Refugees,
No government to defend us
Every government accepts our genocide – any genocide
No people understand our inner pains
No world supports our going home.
Being Rohingya Refugees,
No decent clothes to wear
No health care nor cure for physical illnesses.
Refugees resort to paracetamol
What a fucking life of ours!
Being Rohingya Refugees,
Is there no Law for us?
Aren’t there Refugee Conventions?
Why are we made to endure GENOCIDE,
Again and again and again?
Why are we made, for decades, to wait for Justice, a safe place of our own.
While our home country government make us
Exist in IDP camps?
We too are H-U-M-A-N-S like you all
But denied humane treatment.
Why….. Why…..And Why?
Being Rohingyas?
Still seeking justice and a place we can call Home.
____________________________________________
– Austin Jani ( Rohingya )
– Myanmar ( Burma )
Tags: Asia, Aung San Suu Kyi, Bangladesh, Bhasan Char refugee camp, Buddhism, Burma, Cultural violence, Direct violence, Ethnic Cleansing, Free Rohingya Coalition, Genocide, History, Human Rights, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, International Court of Justice ICJ, Justice, Maung Zarni, Myanmar, Poetry, Racism, Religion, Rohingya, Social justice, Structural violence, Tendayi Achiume, United Nations, Yanghee Lee
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