Cate Blanchett describes plight of Rohingya Muslims

Published August 30, 2018
UNITED NATIONS: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett listens to a speaker during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the plight of Rohingya Muslims.—Reuters
UNITED NATIONS: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett listens to a speaker during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the plight of Rohingya Muslims.—Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that nothing prepared her for “the extent and depth of suffering” she saw when she visited camps in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims who fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s military.

In her very different role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, Ms Blanchett said she heard “gut-wrenching accounts” of torture, rape, people seeing loved ones killed before their eyes, and children thrown into fire and burned alive.

“I am a mother, and I saw my children in the eyes of every single refugee child I met,” she said. “I saw myself in every parent. How can any mother endure seeing her child thrown into a fire?”

The two-time Academy Award winner said: “Their experiences will never leave me.”

The Rohingya have long been treated as outsiders in Buddhist-majority Myan­mar, even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.

The latest crisis began with attacks by an underground Rohingya insurgent group on Myanmar security personnel last August in northern Rakhine State.

Myanmar’s military res­ponded with counterinsurgency sweeps and has been accused of widespread rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and the burning of Rohingya homes and villages forcing about 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Ms Blanchett, who visited refugee camps in Bangladesh in March, recounted stories that were told to her and said it was important to recall that last year wasn’t the first attack on the Rohingya.

A woman, Gul Zahar, told her that in 1978 she was among the 200,000 Rohingya refugees who had streamed into Bangladesh “fleeing brutality and widespread abuse”, said the actress.

In 1992, Gul was among another 250,000 stateless Rohingya who sought safety in Bangladesh. And now at age 90, Ms Blanchett said, Gul was sadly a refugee again living in poverty in Bangladesh “with the sole wish that her great grandchildren will have a better future”.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2018

Opinion

Editorial

IHK resolution
Updated 08 Nov, 2024

IHK resolution

If the BJP administration were to listen to Kashmiris, it could pave the way for the resumption of the political process in IHK.
Climate realities
08 Nov, 2024

Climate realities

THE Air Quality Index in Lahore once again shot past the 1,000-level mark on Wednesday morning, registering at an...
Rule by fear
08 Nov, 2024

Rule by fear

THE abduction of an opposition MNA, as claimed by PTI, is yet another grim episode in Pakistan’s ongoing crisis of...
Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...