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VICE News

A Rohingya Refugee Recalls Her Escape from Myanmar

With their mass exodus into Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees are bringing with them stories of murder, rape, and torture at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces and ultranationalist Buddhists.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh—"They beat me and slit my throat," said Rashida, 25. She was sitting on a plastic chair, weak and waiting for an ambulance. We were a few feet from the border where she'd just crossed into Bangladesh after fleeing her village in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state eight days earlier.

"My baby is dead, my husband is dead," she said. Her breath came in rasps that echoed from her throat. Two deep lacerations that cut across her neck appeared infected. She had not yet received medical attention since being brutally assaulted by a mob of armed men.

With their mass exodus into Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees like Rashida are bringing with them stories of murder, rape, and torture at the hands of Myanmar's security forces and ultranationalist Buddhists. Myanmar's military says it's conducting a "clearance operation" against Rohingya insurgents behind a series of deadly attacks in late August, but accounts from survivors like Rashida tell a decidedly different story. Continue reading on VICE News.