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Who built this system of death that has seen thousands of Rohingya perish at sea?
The Myanmar military created the system that drove the Rohingya from their homeland. The Arakan Army must not be allowed to continue that persecution under a different flag. Misbah Mushorof A boat does not become a coffin only because of bad weather. Long before it sinks, political decisions have already pushed its passengers toward the sea. Citizenship is removed, villages are attacked, movement is restricted, and access to education, healthcare and work is blocked. When every safe path is closed, even an overcrowded boat can begin to look like an escape. More than 500 people, mostly Rohingya, are now feared lost after two boats reportedly disappeared off Myanmar’s coast. One vessel was said to be carrying about 250 passengers when contact was lost after it left Rakhine State in late June. Another, carrying around 280 people, is believed to have sunk near the Ayeyarwady coast on July 8. UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration say the reports are still being investigated, so the exact number of victims has not been confirmed. That distinction matters, but uncertainty must not become an excuse for silence. More than 500 families may be waiting for news that will never come. A conservative compilation of UN figures and current reporting indicates that more than 3,400 Rohingya have been reported dead or missing at sea since the 2017 genocide. The true number may be higher because some boats disappear unrecorded and many bodies are never found. Every number was a person with a name, a family and a reason for risking the journey. The deeper question is not only how these boats disappeared. It is why so many Rohingya believed that a dangerous sea journey was safer than remaining on land. The Myanmar military carries the greatest historical responsibility. For decades, Myanmar authorities treated the Rohingya as foreigners in their own homeland. The 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denied most Rohingya citizenship, while other policies restricted movement, education, employment, marriage and healthcare. The military did not attack only Rohingya bodies; it also attacked Rohingya identity. In August 2017, this discrimination became mass violence. Villages were burned, civilians were killed, women and girls faced sexual violence, and more than 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. The military cannot separate itself from today’s boat tragedies because it created the conditions that produced them. It removed citizenship, destroyed villages and made equal life inside Myanmar impossible. The Myanmar military built the prison, and the sea became one of the few exits. The Arakan Army did not create the 1982 Citizenship Law or lead the military’s 2017 campaign. That responsibility belongs mainly to the Myanmar military and state. But the AA now controls large parts of northern Rakhine State, including areas where Rohingya have lived for generations. Control brings responsibility. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported severe movement restrictions, forced labour, arbitrary detention, recruitment, property seizure and limits on farming, fishing, healthcare and humanitarian assistance in AA-controlled areas. Human Rights Watch has also accused AA fighters of killing at least 170 Rohingya civilians in Hoyyar Siri village in May 2024. The United League of Arakan, the AA’s political wing, denied responsibility. The AA has the right to respond, but denial is not accountability. If its leaders believe the accusations are false, they should allow independent investigators into areas they control, protect witnesses and cooperate with international justice mechanisms. The Myanmar military has spent years denying massacres and blocking investigations. The Arakan Army must not follow the same path. A movement does not become democratic simply because it fights a dictatorship. Liberation cannot mean freedom for one ethnic group and fear for another. The Rohingya are trapped between two armed powers. The Myanmar military has forcibly recruited Rohingya men and boys to fight the AA, even while denying them citizenship. It refuses to recognise them as equal citizens but demands their blood when it needs soldiers. This also puts whole communities at risk because the AA may then view ordinary Rohingya civilians as military collaborators. A young man can be forced tofight by one side and punished by the other. That is not a real choice; it is a trap. The danger does not end when Rohingya reach Bangladesh. Landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps have killed civilians, including children, and displaced thousands. Heavy rain is natural, but the conditions that make it deadly are political. The rain did not remove Rohingya citizenship, burn villages or force families across the border. The genocide did. Rohingya families also face kidnapping, extortion and murderby armed groups and criminal networks inside the camps. The refugee community is not the perpetrator; it is the main victim. Responsibility is shared, but it is not equal. The Myanmar military carries the greatest responsibility because it built the system of statelessness, persecution and forced displacement. The Arakan Army carries responsibility for its treatment of Rohingya civilians and must answer serious allegations of killings, forced labour, recruitment, detention and movement restrictions. Traffickers and camp-based criminal groups also carry direct responsibility, while regional governments and the international community must answer for failures of rescue and protection. Responsibility for the two latest missing boats has not yet been established. An independent investigation must determine who organised the journeys, who collected the money, who controlled the departure areas and what authorities knew. The investigation cannot stop at the water. It must follow the chain from the village to the broker, from the checkpoint to the shore and from the boat organiser to every authority that failed to act. The Myanmar military built the machinery of Rohingya persecution. The Arakan Army must not be allowed to inherit it, repaint it and operate it under a different flag. The Rohingya are not military tools, a demographic problem or a source of profit. They are human beings, and Arakan is their homeland too. How many more must disappear before responsibility is followed by justice? About the author Misbah Mushorof is a Rohingya genocide survivor, human rights defender and researcher based in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He writes about the Rohingya crisis, accountability, displacement and human rights in Myanmar and the region. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Mizzima Media. The post Who built this system of death that has seen thousands of Rohingya perish at sea?
The Myanmar military created the system that drove the Rohingya from their homeland. The Arakan Army must not be allowed to continue that persecution under a different flag. Misbah Mushorof A boat does not become a coffin only because of bad weather. Long before it sinks, political decisions have already pushed its passengers toward the sea. Citizenship is removed, villages are attacked, movement is restricted, and access to education, healthcare and work is blocked. When every safe path is closed, even an overcrowded boat can begin to look like an escape. More than 500 people, mostly Rohingya, are now feared lost after two boats reportedly disappeared off Myanmar’s coast. One vessel was said to be carrying about 250 passengers when contact was lost after it left Rakhine State in late June. Another, carrying around 280 people, is believed to have sunk near the Ayeyarwady coast on July 8. UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration say the reports are still being investigated, so the exact number of victims has not been confirmed. That distinction matters, but uncertainty must not become an excuse for silence. More than 500 families may be waiting for news that will never come. A conservative compilation of UN figures and current reporting indicates that more than 3,400 Rohingya have been reported dead or missing at sea since the 2017 genocide. The true number may be higher because some boats disappear unrecorded and many bodies are never found. Every number was a person with a name, a family and a reason for risking the journey. The deeper question is not only how these boats disappeared. It is why so many Rohingya believed that a dangerous sea journey was safer than remaining on land. The Myanmar military carries the greatest historical responsibility. For decades, Myanmar authorities treated the Rohingya as foreigners in their own homeland. The 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denied most Rohingya citizenship, while other policies restricted movement, education, employment, marriage and healthcare. The military did not attack only Rohingya bodies; it also attacked Rohingya identity. In August 2017, this discrimination became mass violence. Villages were burned, civilians were killed, women and girls faced sexual violence, and more than 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. The military cannot separate itself from today’s boat tragedies because it created the conditions that produced them. It removed citizenship, destroyed villages and made equal life inside Myanmar impossible. The Myanmar military built the prison, and the sea became one of the few exits. The Arakan Army did not create the 1982 Citizenship Law or lead the military’s 2017 campaign. That responsibility belongs mainly to the Myanmar military and state. But the AA now controls large parts of northern Rakhine State, including areas where Rohingya have lived for generations. Control brings responsibility. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported severe movement restrictions, forced labour, arbitrary detention, recruitment, property seizure and limits on farming, fishing, healthcare and humanitarian assistance in AA-controlled areas. Human Rights Watch has also accused AA fighters of killing at least 170 Rohingya civilians in Hoyyar Siri village in May 2024. The United League of Arakan, the AA’s political wing, denied responsibility. The AA has the right to respond, but denial is not accountability. If its leaders believe the accusations are false, they should allow independent investigators into areas they control, protect witnesses and cooperate with international justice mechanisms. The Myanmar military has spent years denying massacres and blocking investigations. The Arakan Army must not follow the same path. A movement does not become democratic simply because it fights a dictatorship. Liberation cannot mean freedom for one ethnic group and fear for another. The Rohingya are trapped between two armed powers. The Myanmar military has forcibly recruited Rohingya men and boys to fight the AA, even while denying them citizenship. It refuses to recognise them as equal citizens but demands their blood when it needs soldiers. This also puts whole communities at risk because the AA may then view ordinary Rohingya civilians as military collaborators. A young man can be forced tofight by one side and punished by the other. That is not a real choice; it is a trap. The danger does not end when Rohingya reach Bangladesh. Landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps have killed civilians, including children, and displaced thousands. Heavy rain is natural, but the conditions that make it deadly are political. The rain did not remove Rohingya citizenship, burn villages or force families across the border. The genocide did. Rohingya families also face kidnapping, extortion and murderby armed groups and criminal networks inside the camps. The refugee community is not the perpetrator; it is the main victim. Responsibility is shared, but it is not equal. The Myanmar military carries the greatest responsibility because it built the system of statelessness, persecution and forced displacement. The Arakan Army carries responsibility for its treatment of Rohingya civilians and must answer serious allegations of killings, forced labour, recruitment, detention and movement restrictions. Traffickers and camp-based criminal groups also carry direct responsibility, while regional governments and the international community must answer for failures of rescue and protection. Responsibility for the two latest missing boats has not yet been established. An independent investigation must determine who organised the journeys, who collected the money, who controlled the departure areas and what authorities knew. The investigation cannot stop at the water. It must follow the chain from the village to the broker, from the checkpoint to the shore and from the boat organiser to every authority that failed to act. The Myanmar military built the machinery of Rohingya persecution. The Arakan Army must not be allowed to inherit it, repaint it and operate it under a different flag. The Rohingya are not military tools, a demographic problem or a source of profit. They are human beings, and Arakan is their homeland too. How many more must disappear before responsibility is followed by justice? About the author Misbah Mushorof is a Rohingya genocide survivor, human rights defender and researcher based in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He writes about the Rohingya crisis, accountability, displacement and human rights in Myanmar and the region. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Mizzima Media. The post Who built this system of death that has seen thousands of Rohingya perish at sea? appeared first on ENG.MIZZIMA.COM.
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