I don’t want to share a list with a killer: Geldof

BOB Geldof has said he handed back the Freedom of the City of Dublin because he doesn’t want to be on the same list as a killer.

Geldof (66) returned the scroll to Dublin City Hall yesterday in a protest against Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

She was given the Freedom of Dublin City in 1999, when she was considered a supporter of democracy and human rights.

However, since her party came to power in 2016, she has failed to try to stop the ongoing genocide of the country’s Rohingya Muslim population.

Amnesty International has reported a targeted campaign of “widespread and systematic murder, rape and burning” against the Rohingya.

Some one million people have been forced to flee to Bangladesh.

Geldof, who once campaigned on behalf of Ms Suu Kyi, said he didn’t want to hand back the honour as it meant a lot to him as a Dubliner.

But he wanted to make a stand and called Ms Suu Kyi “a handmaiden to genocide”.

“Dublin should not have any truck with the woman.

“She’s let us Dubliners down, she’s let Ireland down, because we thought she was one thing and we’ve been duped. “She’s a murderer,” he said. “And I don’t want to be on the same list as what the UN has described as a genocidist, I really don’t,” he said.

The singer and campaigner said he would love if it was possible for her to be removed from the freedom roll, but, as of yet, there was no constitutional way of doing that.

Geldof also called on the Myanmar leader to step down and hand back the Nobel Peace Prize that she won in 1991. He suggested she should face the International Court of Justice and The Hague. Supporters of Ms Suu Kyi

have claimed she has no control of the military perpetrating the genocide.

However, Geldof said she more than anyone had a responsibility to make a stand.

“Having fought through moral force these thugs in the military and she comes to power democratically and it is a great moral victory,” Geldof said.

“How much more is the onus and responsibility on you at that point to say something, to not oversee carnage?

“How much more? Don’t be an apologist for mayhem.”

He also warned of creating a conflict in Asia, like that between Israel and Palestine.

“It is so odd that 600,000 people who lived in this country for hundreds of years are suddenly bombed in their straw villages or mass-raped, the men are killed, the children abused, driven across impenetrable borders with nowhere to go.

“So they are true stateless people,” he said.

Geldof said he made the decision to hand back the honour after he was asked to introduce Barack Obama’s ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, at the Abbey Theatre.

“She wrote the bible on genocide,” he said.

“And she’s Irish. I’m a founding patron of the Aegis Trust, which was set up to do genocide studies and prevention.”

Meanwhile, councillor Mannix Flynn tabled an emergency motion urging the council to remove the Freedom of Dublin from Ms Suu Kyi and to convene an immediate meeting of the protocol committee to discuss what he called an “unprecedented situation”. Councillors voted 75.9pc against the motion.

Instead, the council’s Protocol committee will discuss it next month.

Following the vote, Cllr Flynn accused his fellow councillors of “grandstanding”.