Oxford University college takes down portrait of Suu Kyi
AN OXFORD University college has removed a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi amid allegations that Burma has been carrying out ethnic cleansing.
Ms Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader, is an alumna of St Hugh’s College and has previously been awarded an honorary degree. But the leader has come under mounting criticism over her handling of the Rohingya crisis, which has seen more than 400,000 Muslims flee the country.
Earlier this month the United Nations accused the state of ethnic cleansing over the mass exodus of the Rohingya, an ethnic minority, fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.
A portrait of Ms Suu Kyi, who graduated from St Hugh’s in 1967, has hung near the main entrance since 1999.
It was painted by artist Chen Yanning in 1997 and belonged to Ms Suu Kyi’s husband, Michael Aris, an Oxford don. It was given to the college following his death.
But the college’s governing body has now decided to remove her portrait from display and replaced it with a Japanese painting, according to the college’s student newsletter The Swan.
The reasons for the portrait’s removal are not clear but it comes just days before the start of the academic year and the arrival of new students.
The new painting, by Yoshihiro Takeda, a Japanese artist, was presented to the college earlier this month.
St Hugh’s College said: “We received the gift of a new painting this month which will be exhibited for a period.
‘The new painting will be exhibited for a period. The portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved’
The painting of Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to storage.”
The politician won a Nobel Prize after years as a political prisoner and has been Burma’s leader since 2015.
The election was greeted with enthusiasm by the international community, but Ms Suu Kyi has come under pressure to act over the current crisis.
The state has rejected allegations of systematic atrocities, telling the UN security council that “there is no ethnic cleansing and no genocide in Myanmar”.