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Description

Parin Sachedina recounts various violent experiences of the expulsion like the army smashing her parents’ wedding photograph.

“I remember being on a bus, and there was a lot of noise, and it was very scary. And then, you know, talking to my family, it transpires that that was the bus that was taking us to the airport. We were not allowed to take anything with us. And the noise was, I think, based around the fact that my mum had smuggled a photograph of her wedding photograph. And the army officers said she couldn't take it and there was a bit of a kerfuffle, and they smashed it.
It was such a scary time and my dad used to tell us this story about how he went to get our passports done, because we didn't have passports. And he said that if you looked at an officer in the eye, they would very likely hurt you, if not shoot you.
My sister, I remember her telling me this, this awful thing, that where she used to walk to school, and there was a river that she used to pass walking to school, and she'd see dead bodies floating on the river.
It was just a horrendous time for everybody what they went through - the fear, not just in losing everything that they had, but also potentially losing their lives, losing their loved ones, because it was such an erratic time. You know, the military officers were just completely inconsistent, spontaneous with, you know, with how they treated people with their attacks.”

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