‘We will fight for your justice’

The female Nobel laureates have assured the tortured Rohingya women that they will fight for their justice after listening to their harrowing tales of brutalities in Myanmar.

"They [Nobel laureates] were able to communicate very powerful messages to the Rohingya women. They said 'we are your voice and we will fight for justice for you'" Nobel Women Initiative's Media Consultant Veronica Pedrosa, who accompanied the laureates to Ghundhum of Naikkhangchhari in Bandarban said today.

"You should be proud to say 'I am a Rohingya,'" Pedrosa told The Daily Star by phone, quoting the female Nobel Peace laureates as saying.

In tears, female Nobel laureates Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire listened for two hours to the stories of Rohingya refugees stuck in no-man's land in Naikkhangchhari upazila of Bandarban while visiting the area this morning.

They were visiting the Zero point area of Ghumdum union in Naikkhangchhari upazila where thousands of Rohingya refugees have taken shelter in the no-man's land, reports our Cox's Bazar staff correspondent.

As the news of their arrival spread, hundreds of Rohingya female and children refugees crossed a small creek and moved into Bangladesh territory through Konapara. They shared stories of their torture and persecution in the hands of the Myanmar military in Rakhine state.

The Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006, has organised the visit in partnership with Naripokkho. On Sunday, they visited the refugee camps in Kutupalang and Balukhali.

"My mother was killed in front of my own eyes. And the Myanmar military took away my father in a car and he has been missing till now," said one refugee girl, aged 13 who escaped from Kochugunia of Maungdaw with her six siblings and has been staying in the no-man's land.

Another refugee, a severely distressed woman, aged 35, told the Nobel laureates that the Myanmar army killed her husband and snatched her two-year-old child and threw the child into burning flames.