Rohingya: We Prefer to Call it Burma
keith harmon snow | Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh
Photographer: keith harmon snow
Exhibit Title: Rohingya: We Prefer to Call it Burma
Location: Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh
"We Prefer to Call it Burma" examines the plight of 'stateless' Rohingya refugees trapped in the Cox's Bazaar and Tecnaf districts of Bangladesh. Many Rohingyas call their country Burma, rejecting Myanmar (assigned by the military in 1989).
Photographs depict conditions in the camps, and provide documentary evidence and testmonials of genocide committed against Rohingya people by the Burmese military. They also juxtapose and situate the Rohingya in relation to the host community and surrounding areas.
Some one million Rohingyas struggle to survive in heavily popluated Bangladesh. This has caused conflict with Bangladeshis, esp. due to the uneven distribution of resources by the charity & aid complex. As more resources are depleted by the joint populations, these problems continue to grow.
Violence in Burma continues. Rohingyas are being trafficked out of the camps�"and fleeing Burma by boat�"sometimes trapped at sea, held ransom, or killed. Talk is cheap and ubiquitous, but there has been little substantive international action or committment to truly help the Rohingya people.
As of May 5, 2020, CIVID-19 had no substantive impact on the Rohingya refugee camps.
This project involved many people whose courage, resilience, kindness and determination cannot be overstated. Some of the names are changed, some redacted, to protect them from possible targeting by agents of the Burmese government. Along with the images of survivors I have gathered testmonials about the vioelnce, including dates of military operations, and the results of them; forensice evidence; the dates and places where atrocities occurred, and sometimes the names, ranks, or official positions of some of the perpetrators of atrocities.
Make Comment/View Comments