Yaba: The Red Pills and the Rohingya

Bangladesh’s cities are awash with red methamphetamine pills that come in from Myanmar.
By Siddharthya Roy
June 04, 2018

“What about Yaba?” I asked Elijah (name changed).

Elijah and I had met on the very first day that I stepped foot in Kutupalong — the largest of the Rohingya refugee camps near Bangladesh’s port city Cox’s Bazar. Soon I’d begun carrying sweets from the city for his children while he insisted on buying me endless cups of tea.

Our discussions would often wander well beyond that which could be reported. Speaking a mishmash of Bangla, English, and Chittagongese, the talkative man soon became a source of many stories about his people and their lives before and after the genocide in Rakhine state, across the border in Myanmar. Every time he had a story he couldn’t prove, he’d grin ear-to-ear, showing off his betel-stained teeth, mocking me for being too uptight. https://thediplomat.com/2018/06/yaba-th ... -rohingya/