Survivors of a Silent Genocide

During the past several years, I have been documenting the plight of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority by capturing their dire everyday life, portraying them as human beings deprived of their social, civil and human rights that are so often taken for granted in our society.

My intention is to document the violent ethnic cleansing campaigns turning into genocide while under the pretext of so called security operations by Myanmar forces.

This current wave of extreme violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority is not the first one. Successive violent crackdowns have taken place since 1978 with systematic mass exodus. This is the first large-scale crackdown under a democratically elected government in Myanmar though.

Widespread killings, torture, disproportionate retaliation attacks turn to mayhem of ethnic cleansing evolving into genocide.

Throughout, the access to Rakhine state for media and humanitarian actors has been extremely restricted and nearly impossible, as no witnesses of the denied barbarism are wanted.

In Bangladesh, traumatized victims and survivors who have endured the perilous way to the exile now face the ordeal of having lived through the genocide that is still not seeing an end.

Although a mass humanitarian and aid agencies activities are set on the spot the situation in refugee camps remains extremely precarious, especially for the victims of torture, women victims of mass rape and children who have endured and witnessed the same.

Because it is nearly impossible to collect evidence of the genocide in Rakhine itself, it is extremely important to document and collect testimonies of the victims and witnesses of these acts of crimes against the humanity.

By documenting their stories and making them available for a wider advised audience, journalists, human rights investigators and photographers can play an essential role in countering the "fake news" allegations branded by the Burmese authorities.