Nothing prepared me for Rohingya suffering, says actress

NEW YORK: Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett (pic) told the UN Security Council that nothing prepared her for “the extent and depth of suffering” she saw when she visited camps in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s military.

In her very different role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, 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 mo ther 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 Buddhistmajority Myanmar, even though their families have lived there 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.

The Security Council meeting on Tuesday commemorated the first anniversary of the crackdown.

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.

“The need for this future to transpire inside Myanmar has never been more urgent,” Blanchett said.

She implored the Security Council to help the Rohingya return with “a clear pathway to full citizenship.”

“We have failed the Rohingya before,” Blanchett said. “Please, let us not fail them again.” — AP