Oral history interview with Mohammed Husson Ali [Session 01, Recording 01]
- SR12299_S01P1
- Item
- 2018-09-25
Session 1, Part 1. In the first interview session, on September 25, 2018, Mohammed Husson Ali discusses his early life in the farming village of Myo Thu Gyi in Burma, also known as Myanmar. He talks about his education and his early career as a teacher. He discusses the political changes in Burma during the 1960s and 1970s, then shares his experience of fleeing with his family to Bangladesh during Operation Dragon King, during which the government of Burma expelled many Rohingya. He talks about returning to Burma; about working for the World Food Organization and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees during the 1980s and 1990s; and about ongoing political changes during this time period. He describes the slow erosion of Rohingya rights beginning in the 1990s, including the systematic displacement of Rohingya people for Buddhist settlers. He talks about his flight to Bangladesh in 2008, about his recovery from a heart attack while in Malaysia, and about his arrival as a refugee in Portland, Oregon, in 2011. He speaks at length about the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya people, and also talks about the living conditions of his family still in Bangladesh.
Mohammed Husson Ali, 1951-