在罗辛亚营地 政治活动对一些人来说是危险的

In Rohingya Camps, Political Activities Risky¹ For Some

It was after Mohib Ullah scored his first political victories that the death threats began for real. On a recent morning, the Rohingya refugee spoke² with Reuters in the Bangladesh camp where he lives. He read the latest warning, sent over the WhatsApp messaging app.

“Mohib Ullah is a virus of the community,” he read. “Kill him wherever he is found.”

The 44-year-old leads the largest of several community groups that have formed since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims sought refuge in Bangladesh. They fled to escape a campaign of severe attacks by Myanmar’s military beginning in August 2017.

Myanmar’s government has ordered increasingly severe restrictions³ against the minority ethnic⁴ group for many years, including denying them citizenship⁵.

A new civil society is growing among the Rohingya in the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area. Some refugee campaigners are seeking justice for reported violence in Myanmar. A small group of women are working for increased rights for females. Others are simply working to improve life in the settlement that is now home to more than 900,000 people.

But several refugees told Reuters reporters that, along with the political awakening⁶, violence has increased at the camps. They say militants⁷ and religious conservatives are competing for power. The refugees describe increasing fear in the camps, where armed men have raided shelters at night, kidnapped critics and warned women against violating conservative Islamic traditions.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation⁹ Army, or ARSA, is active in the camps, refugees say. So are several other armed groups. ARSA is also known as Harakah al-Yaqin -- the movement of faith.

“In the daytime, the al-Yaqin guys become normal people,” said one young woman, who, like other refugees, requested not to be identified for her safety. “But at night," she said, "it’s like they have a kind of magical power.”

Talks and threats

Reuters spoke with UN employees, diplomats¹⁰, Bangladeshi officials and researchers about the forces competing for influence in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Some are hopeful that the stateless Rohingya are beginning to find political expression.

However, there are also fears. Officials worry that a turn to violence could make solving the refugee crisis through talks impossible.

“Refugee camps in many parts of the world are becoming recruitment grounds for terrorists,” said Mozammel Haque, the head of Bangladesh’s cabinet committee on law and order. He said if this happens, it would affect Bangladesh and nearby countries.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment. Zaw Htay said during a press conference in January that Myanmar had protested to Bangladesh over what he said were ARSA bases inside Bangladesh.

The front line in the struggle for the Rohingyas’ future are the bamboo structures where refugees take shelter from the heat and dust. In the office of his group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), Mohib Ullah holds an open meeting each morning.

ARSPH has documented reported atrocities¹¹ the Rohingya suffered in Myanmar. Mohib Ullah went from home to home to try to get a count of the killings¹², rapes¹⁴ and fires. He shared the information he gathered with international investigators¹⁵.

ARSPH says its main goal is to get Rohingya involved in international talks on their future.

But not everyone agrees with the group's methods. Some refugees argue for a stronger position in talks about how the refugees might return to Myanmar.

“We are flexible, we want to negotiate,” said a senior leader of ARSPH, who asked not be identified. “But we fear we may be harmed because of this.”

ARSA is among ARSPH’s opponents, that leader said.

Night terrors

Bangladeshi security forces guard the outside of the camps to stop refugees from leaving. But violent men run the crowded camps inside, especially at night, refugees told Reuters.

In some parts of the camps, those men claim ties to ARSA, said more than six refugees. United Nations officials and other workers watching the group’s activities say it is unclear how many of those men are under orders from the group’s leadership. But some of them reportedly have asked wealthier refugees and shopkeepers to pay taxes. They say the money will be used to fight back in Myanmar, refugees said.

One refugee who volunteers as an aid worker in the camps told Reuters he witnessed a kidnapping in January by men he believed belong to ARSA. Men with wooden sticks moved quickly into one area of the camp and took away a man who had refused to attend one of ARSA's meetings, he said.

“They just carried him off like a goat to the slaughter¹⁶.”

Reuters was unable to confirm the reported incident or find out what happened to the man.

Reuters was unable to reach ARSA for comment.

Police have recorded a rise in violence in the camps in recent months, said Iqbal Hossain, a police official in Cox’s Bazar.

“So far we have not found any link to any militant⁸ groups,” said Hossain. He added that there were only 992 officers deployed¹⁷ to the camps.

Reuters also asked the UN refugee agency about reports of ARSA involvement in the violence. The agency noted¹⁸ police reports that found most violence and threats in the camps were carried out by what they called “criminal elements or related to personal vendettas¹⁹.”

“You didn’t listen”

Myanmar government media said ARSA launched three attacks across the border in Myanmar early this year. In February, ARSA promised to continue its armed campaign.

ARSA propaganda shows the group as ethnic freedom fighters and does not suggest a position on religious tradition. But some refugees -- and a report by an international non-governmental organization -- say ARSA members and Islamic leaders push for extremely conservative religious behavior.

Four women told Reuters they had received threats for going out to work for aid groups in the camps. Many women with jobs in the camps are experiencing paid employment for the first time in their lives.

Mohammed Kamruzzaman is an education specialist with the aid group BRAC. He told Reuters that 150 of its female teachers had stopped coming to work in January after receiving or hearing about “violent threats”.

I'm Caty Weaver²¹.

And I'm Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

magical - adj. related to having a special power, influence, or skill

flexible - adj. able to change or to do different things

slaughter - n. the act of killing¹³ animals for their meat

vendetta²⁰ - n. a very long and violent fight between two families or groups

recruitment - n. the act of finding suitable people and getting them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc.

front line - n. the most important and active position in a job or field of activity

bamboo - n. a tall plant with hard hollow stems that are used for building and to make furniture, tools, etc.

atrocity²² - n. a very cruel or terrible act or action

1 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

2 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。

3 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

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 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

6 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

9 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

10 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

13 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。

14 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

15 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

17 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

18 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

19 vendettas   

n.家族世仇( vendetta的名词复数 )；族间仇杀；长期争斗；积怨

参考例句：

• I'm not getting involved in your personal vendettas. 我没有牵扯到你们的私人恩怨里。 来自互联网

20 vendetta   

n.世仇，宿怨

参考例句：

• For years he pursued a vendetta against the Morris family.多年来他一直在寻求向莫里斯家族报世仇。
• She conducted a personal vendetta against me.她对我有宿仇。

21 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

22 atrocity   

n.残暴，暴行

参考例句：

• These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
• I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。