罗辛亚难民与美国之间的紧张关系

Tensions Follow Rohingya Refugees to United States

As she tightens¹ her traditional head covering, Bibiasha Mohamad Tahir’s thoughts move between the present and the past.

She watches her daughter playing on the living room floor of their apartment home in the American state of Indiana.

Tahir is a Muslim and a Rohingya refugee. She came to the United States in 2014 after fleeing Myanmar, a country also known as Burma. She has memories of death and destruction in her home village in Rakhine state.

“They shot and killed people,” Tahir told VOA. “They burnt down everything… we had (no) place to stay. They laid down broken glass, wire on the roads. They held people at gunpoint.”

Tahir and her family decided² they could not stay in Myanmar because of the violence. Rohingya are not considered citizens in the country. She says they are not permitted to travel freely, unable to attend school or to work.

“We lived there for years, for generations,” Tahir told VOA. “Our grandparents lived there. Now they cannot live there in peace. They’re setting villages on fire, everything on fire. They are killing³ people. They are burning down everything. There is no peace,” she said.

More than 500,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar since the military launched an anti-terrorist operation in the country’s northwest.

A top United Nations human rights official called the campaign “ethnic⁴ cleansing” and has accused the military of serious human rights abuses.

Now hundreds of thousands of Rohingya live in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh as they wait to move to another country.

The crisis has increased the number of Rohingya refugees arriving in the United States. Since 2015, the U.S. government has resettled more Rohingya than refugees from Syria’s civil war.

But instead of going to a city with a large Rohingya population – Tahir and her family went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and became the first Rohingya family in the area.

Burmese community members believe that there are now more than 150 Rohingya families in the Fort Wayne area. The Rohingya community is a small part of the 6,000 Burmese now living in the city.

Most of the foreign born Burmese population of Fort Wayne speak a different language and have a different religion than the Rohingya. The ethnic and religious tensions that fueled their flight from Myanmar are still an issue in the U.S.

“Why I don’t like Rohingya to come to Fort Wayne is …most of them…almost 100 percent…are Muslims,” said Abraham Thang, a Burmese Chin community leader.

Thang moved to Fort Wayne in the 1990s.

“They’re blood is Muslims, not Buddhist⁵, not Christians,” he said. “They did a very terrible job, like attacking the military and police post and killing and murdering the Hindus. That is not good for Rohingyas. That is a big mistake by Rohingyas."

Thang is a leader at the Myanmar Indigenous⁷ Christian⁶ Church. He was one of the few Burmese who was willing to talk to VOA about the Rohingya settlement in Fort Wayne. While he says these are his own opinions, they represent the same issues the Rohingya experience in Myanmar.

“I don’t mind they practice what they believe,” Thang explained to VOA.

“What I mind is extremism,” he added. “Most of the terrorists come from the Muslim community. This is what I am thinking in my mind personally. So my opinion is rather than sending Rohingya to Fort Wayne – and not sending them is better – don’t send the Rohingya to Fort Wayne.”

“That’s unfortunate,” said Tom Henry, the mayor of Fort Wayne. He added “I want anybody from Myanmar to know they are welcome in our community.”

Henry, a member of the Democratic Party, has made Burmese integration⁸ a goal for his administration in this city of more than 250,000.

Thang, like some other community members, worries that increasing the number of new arrivals will increase problems.

“I foresee the Burmese people and the Rohingya people in the future, sooner or later, we will have conflict and that is not good for the Fort Wayne community."

Mayor Henry disagrees.

“I don’t see that happening. We have a very safe community.”

The Rohingya refugees in Fort Wayne who spoke⁹ to VOA said they do not believe they have been badly treated by other Burmese in the area. None report having experienced any hostility¹⁰. And they say they have been welcomed and assisted in their resettlement.

While she feels safe, Bibiasha Mohamad Tahir wonders when she will finally feel at home.

“We couldn’t find peace in our country...how could we find peace here?” she asks.

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

grandparent – n. a parent of one’s father or mother

indigenous - adj. living, or existing naturally in an area or environment

practice – v. to carry out or perform; to train by repeated exercises

unfortunate – adj. regrettable; resulting in bad luck

integration – n. the act or process of uniting different things

1 tightens   

收紧( tighten的第三人称单数 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• One set of provisions tightens emission standards. 一套使排放标准更加严格的规定。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Requires no special tools or fittings; hand tightens to relief valve outlet. 不需要专用工具或管件；用手将其紧固到安全阀上即可。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

5 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

8 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。