A Rohingya refugee joins the Canadian Delegation, aboard Umut, Global Sumud Flotilla, 18 May 2026

 

Mon, May 18 at 6:13 AM

From the perennial headlines, the world knows Myanmar’s genocidally persecuted Rohingya people as the “boat people”, a label that was conferred on the Vietnamese refugees who fled the Mekong Delta and other parts of Vietnam carpet-bombed by – who else?!! – the United States in its undeclared and illegal war of aggression in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.

Ko Tinmaung , on the ship. Reading one of Frantz Fanon’s classics, “Black Skin, White Mask”

So, it is heart-warming and inspiring to see the sight of Ko Tinmaung, a Rohingya refugee resettled in Canada, aboard “Umut”, the name of his ship which is sailing now in the Mediterranean Sea and hearing his 20-second video message for the world of concerned citizens, including his fellow Rohingya refugees, a million inside the camps on Bangladeshi soil.
See here on YouTube.

Genocide is an absolute red line for this Rohingya, whether it is directed at his people, Palestinians or Europe’s Jews and other victim populations.

Ko Tinmaung, (far right, with a shoulder bag strapped around) kneeling next to the train track, outside the iconic Nazi SS Administration building), with an international delegation of Rohingya and Myanmar activists as well as scholars from Myanmar, Germany, USA, UK, Japan and Canada at Auschwitz-Birkenau, March 2020, photo in Zarni’s possession)

Ko Tinmaung boarded the vessel at the Turkish port of Marmaris on 16 May. As of 17 May morning, there are 61 boats sailing towards Gaza.

A Rohingya man getting on the activist boat to try to break Israel’s genocidal siege of Gaza, Palestine is particularly poignant, considering the frequent and tragic drownings of genocide-fleeing Rohingyas at sea in South and Southeast Asian waters.

The rest of the article can be accessed here, along with video recordings and links;