Survivor of Torture: Akber's story
By Ziaur Rahman Sayed Akber, 51, has spent almost his whole life suffering from physical and mental health issues after being tortured by Myanmar armed forces in Buthidaung, a town in Rakhine state. It happened when he was a teenager. Akber, 17, was working at his parents’ cultivation land when some soldiers came to his village and set him a laborious task. He refused, and was beaten up and tortured. Akber received severe injuries on his head and body, which left him mentally stunted and physically traumatised. It was 1991 when that incident occurred. At that time, his parents held white identity cards with “Bengali” written on the back. They, and many other Rohingya, had suffered increased persecution after Myanmar’s Citizenship Law was passed in 1982, which did not recognise the Rohingya as citizens. In 1992, 228,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. In the following years, the Bangladesh government forced more than 208,000 to be repatriated back to Myanmar, whi
