Médecins Sans Frontières - Testimony from fieldworker returning from Bangladesh INTERNATIONAL (ENG script)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF283612

Date taken / Date Recorded 02/05/2019 12:00 AM

Country Bangladesh, Norway

Photographer / videographer / producer Ragnhild Sørheim

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m1s

Maximum Size 1200px × 1200px 140.52 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Translation of subtitles attached.

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They gathered all the children,
and threw them on the fire.
Sissel Roksvåg
HR and finance manager
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Torture is common.
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Rape is common.
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Murdering children is common.
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I just
came back –
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from Bangladesh.
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It is an area that –
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– used to be jungle –
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– that is now a refugee camp.
A Rohingya woman
told her story
of fleeing from Myanmar
to Sissel
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She finds –
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– all the men
in the village –
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– and the elderly, they… -
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– …they had been killed
on the spot they were standing.
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With a machete.
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So, there was a lot of blood.
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And then -
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– she finds the women, –
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– and they are tied up –
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– with their hands on their back.
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She found it very strange –
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– that she couldn’t see any children.
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[clears her voice]
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Ehm…
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And they…

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She eventually found them.
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It was a very big –
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– fire –
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– that had been lit, –
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– where they had gathered
all the children –

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– and thrown them in the fire.
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Ehm…
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She finds her husband.
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He is dead.

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And that is one –
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– of many stories.

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They want you to
speak about it, –
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– because they want people to –
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– know what’s going on.
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Because –
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– that is not –
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– accidents or…
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Or…

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That is -

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– done intentionally.
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The Rohingya people is not –
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– recognized as an –
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–ethnic group –
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– in Myanmar –
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– therefore, they are not entitled to –
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– an identity, nationality, –
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– nothing.
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I am worried that –
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– this is a situation –
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– that isn’t going anywhere, –
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– because no one
is doing anything.
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The situation is stuck.
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I find it very frustrating –
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– that when I think about –
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– going back there
in ten years, –
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– the situation
is either the same, –
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– if it’s not
the same, –
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– it is worse.
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If that is going to change –
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– something has to happen –
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– and that means –
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– political action.
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There is a line for what –
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– aid organizations
can do, –
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– we can’t change
the political situation.
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We can help those that –
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– are there and
who are in need.
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But this is
not a situation –
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– that can be solved
with aid

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Political action
is needed.