Plea from PHR Director: from inside a Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh

Dear Habib,
Today is Human Rights Day. Right now I’m near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in the sprawling refugee camps where more than 600,000 desperate and traumatized Rohingyas have sought safety. I’m not sure there’s much to celebrate. We are meeting with refugees who tell us some of the most horrifying stories that I’ve ever heard.
                                                
And yet, as our team of Physicians for Human Rights doctors records the stories, documents the abuses, collects the evidence of rape and other unspeakable brutalities, I cling fast to my belief in Human Rights Day. For if human rights abuses are ignored, how are we to stop these atrocities from happening again?

When we first arrived, I spoke with three generations of women from one family – a grandmother, a mother, and her five-year-old daughter. The girl’s father was killed by the Myanmar military and, in the attack on their home, the soldiers brutally threw the little girl against a wall. When I met with her, she was still suffering from internal injuries and was no longer able to walk.

For that little girl, for her mother and grandmother, for all the Rohingyas who have been systematically raped, beaten, murdered, we will not stop until justice is served. With enough evidence – the kind of indisputable scientific evidence that Physicians for Human Rights collects – justice will be served.


If you have a minute, I implore you to hear what we’re learning and documenting about the plight of the Rohingyas by watching my video diary below:
We will be here for several more days, collecting evidence and documenting crimes. With you by our side, I know our work will not be ignored.


With my thanks,
Homer Venters, MD
Director of Programs

P.S.  To hear more about my trip in Bangladesh, I’ve put together a short video highlighting what I’ve seen so far. You can view it by clicking [HERE].

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