Guilt and isolation: Genocide survivors on adjusting to life in Australia

By Charlie McLean

By Ned Hammond

Topic:Community and Cultural Events

Saddam Hossain survived the Rohingya genocide, but carries scars from bullet wounds. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

The United Nations calls them "the most persecuted minority in the world", but now 10 years on from a genocide, members of the Rohingya people are rebuilding in Australia.

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, have lived in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for centuries, where they have suffered killings, forced evictions and other atrocities.

As the community in Australia continues to grow, some live in constant fear about the state of their loved ones who remain abroad.

In 2017, the Myanmar military marched into northern Rakhine — a Rohingya territory — beginning a sustained campaign of violence, forcing more than 700,000 people to flee for nearby Bangladesh.

A Myanmar police officer, pictured in 2017, at a checkpoint in Buthidaung, Rakhine State. (AP)

Saddam Hossain was one of them, escaping over the Bangladeshi border amidst the chaos.

President of the Rohingya United Youth Network and community spokesperson Robi Alam translated for Mr Hossain as he described to the ABC how Myanmar's military surrounded his village in 2017.

The military surrounded Mr Hossain's town in 2017 and started shooting "anyone, shooting everywhere". (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

Concerned for his cows, Mr Hossain went to release them so they could escape, putting himself in the firing line in the process.

"When [I] was cutting the rope to release the cows [I] was shot on [my] right upper thigh and by the time [I] was looking to see the wound … [I] had got another two shots on [my] left thigh," the translator said.

The family escaped to a nearby village, but after three days with badly injured legs and no medical treatment, they decided to flee the region.

Mr Hossain was shot multiple times in his legs and spent four years in and out of hospital at the Cox's Bazar camp. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

"Usually ... to go to the borderline, it takes about an hour on transport," Mr Alam said. "It took them seven days, because two people had to carry him."

Finally canoeing into Bangladesh, Mr Hossain found himself at the refugee camp in the port city Cox's Bazar, which has become home to more than one million stateless Rohingyas.

After four years in and out of the camp's hospital, Mr Hossain secured a UN humanitarian visa and joined a Rohingya community in Australia, which advocates estimate is made up of about 5,000 people.

Rohingya refugees stand on their capsized boat before being rescued in the waters off West Aceh, Indonesia. (AP: Reza Saifullah)

Despite his new home, Mr Hossain said the pain hasn't gone away.

Rohingya siblings fleeing violence hold one another as they cross the Naf River along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar in November, 2017. (Reuters: Adnan Abidi)

Mr Hossain is thankful that he is now in a place where he can express his suffering, and grateful to his wife for taking care of him.

But after losing his father and two uncles, he is still concerned for his brother, who remains in the Bangladesh camp.

"What he wants is for the Australian community to know about the injustice against his family and community, and he wants justice," Mr Alam said.

Fears for family still in camp

Shofika Begum also came to Australia on a humanitarian visa after spending time in the Bangladesh camp, and remembers her family being killed when the military surrounded her village Arakan in 2017.

She said she was forced to watch her sister's murder.

"She had this sort of valuable hijab, and they took it off from her and just smashed her skull with that thing," Mr Alam said, translating for Ms Begum.

"And she doesn't remember anything afterwards."

Shofika Begum says she saw large portions of her family killed before escaping the genocide in 2017. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

Now safe in Australia, Ms Begum shares Mr Hossain's fears for those left behind.

"She's got one more sister in the camp, two brothers [also in the camp] and two brothers in Malaysia," Mr Alam said.

While Ms Begum is grateful her children won't grow up in perpetual fear, the mental scars from her ordeal remain.

"[I] can't sleep at night, [I] feel that [my] mum is right next to [me]. [I] feel that [my] sister is playing next to [me]," she said.

"There's just so much in [my] head."

Saddam Hossain and Shofika Begum both escaped to the Bangladesh refugee camp before coming to Australia. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

Speaking out to keep identify alive

Mr Alam was born in the Bangladesh refugee camp, and after 10 years his family came to Australia as part of the humanitarian assistance program.

He started community work when he was 14 or 15 and hears stories like Mr Hossain's and Ms Begum's "almost on a daily basis".

"Every Rohingya that we meet has stories like this and it's getting to a point where it's normalised and sometimes you just get so dehumanised that … your emotions don't react as it should after hearing such horrific stuff because of how normal it is in our community," he said.

"It just breaks you and sometimes you feel hopeless.

Robi Alam was born in the Cox's Bazar camp where he spent his first 10 years before coming to Australia. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)

Mr Alam said he didn't want to see the community lose its identity.

"The most fundamental thing for me is, and a lot of Rohingya people feel this, is that because of the genocide that our community has been going through over the last four or five decades, we feel that our identity is almost becoming extinct," he said.

"That's why it's a strong sense of responsibility for me to be able to do whatever I can in my capacity, because we don't want to lose who we are as a community.

The Rohingya community is hosting a Genocide Remembrance Day event later today in Kingston in Logan, organised by community organisations Rohingya United Youth Network, Australia Rohingya Council, Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland and Rohingya Community of Queensland.

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