'All these flashbacks come': Rohingya’s teens speak out on Myanmar brutality

Memories of the day in October that changed the life of teenager Mohammed Riaz for ever come in vivid flashbacks, when it’s dark and quiet.

State forces arrived in his village in the Buthidaung township of Myanmar. Officers entered the family home, raped and killed his two elder sisters and shot his brother dead.

Mohammed, 17, and his mother managed to get out of the house. “I was so scared. It happened so quickly. Even if I wanted to rescue them, I was so scared. I wanted to do something,” he said through an interpreter.

Biplop, 18, who goes only by one name, has nightmares following an army attack on his village in the same district a month earlier. His mother and sister were held for seven hours, tied to chairs and beaten.

“The guards were all around the place. The military were going into homes,” he says. “I tried to protect my mother and sister, but they tied us up, so I couldn’t.”

From the window of his home, Biplop says he saw a man being beheaded and babies being killed. When no one is around, he cries.

Source: theguardian