Geldof returns award in protest over ‘handmaiden to genocide’ Suu Kyi

BOB Geldof has handed back his Freedom of the City of Dublin in protest at Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same accolade while Burma carries out “ethnic cleansing” of the

Rohingya.

The Live Aid founder and musician blasted the Nobel peace laureate, saying she was a “handmaiden to genocide” whose association with the Irish capital “shames us all”.

Ms Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader, has faced widespread criticism and anger over the country’s violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority, described by the United Nations as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

Mr Geldof delivered the scroll to Dublin City Council offices and held a short meeting with staff there. He said: “Dublin should not have any truck

Bob Geldof said: ‘She has let us Dubliners down.’

with this war. She has let us Dubliners down, she has let Ireland down, because we thought she was one thing and we have been duped.”

He added: “I would be a hypocrite now were I to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder,

complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide.”

More than 600,000 of the minority group have fled the northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh to avoid violence from Burmese security forces since August. FOOTBALL chiefs and some clubs have signed up to a charity campaign to show their support for LGBT equality.

The Scottish Football Association and Scottish Professional Football League are among the organisations backing Stonewall Scotland’s Rainbow Laces campaign this year.

The campaign aims to make sport more inclusive for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) fans and players by raising awareness of anti-LGBT abuse.

Research carried out in 2016 found 72 per cent of football fans have heard anti-LGBT remarks at games over the last five years, Stonewall said.

Not all the clubs signed up to the project have been named but the charity said