The Terrifying Night
August 24, 2021
Four years on from #Myanmar military-led genocidal attacks against #Rohingya in Rakhine State, survivors have yet to receive justice. Listen to the voices of six poets from Rohingya Art Garden as they retell their journeys, and honor their search for accountability.
‘The Terrifying Night’
I can’t forget
I’ll never forget the twenty-seventeen.
Unheralded,
They burnt down all the villages,
Living and non-living
The red river under the ashes
I still recall the scenarios.
– Afnaan
Our dreams, our hopes;
All were set on fire without our fault
They shot and deported us
Now we are stateless.
– Ishrat Bibi
The hunting soldiers besieged our village,
They raped girls, women, and even old
and celebrated victory
They scream like dogs.
I was scared and escaped.
– Aejas Ruhul Amin
I dove into the sea for life
Many babies have drowned
Wherever I swim, there is pile of dead
Floating like the cut woods
– Royal Hussein
Breathing sounds along the way
Old men rely on sticks
Such is voyage like a desert
Thirst, illness and insomnia
The Death Angel has no time to rest.
– Jainwaz Salim
Where is the city
that has justice?
I’ve been searching for it everywhere
Nowhere I find its feature.
– Thida Shania