Amnesty strips Suu Kyi of award

YANGON: Amnesty International has withdrawn its most prestigious human rights prize from Aung San Suu Kyi ( pix), accusing the Myanmar leader of perpetuating human rights abuses by not speaking out about violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Once hailed as a champion in the fight for democracy, Suu Kyi has been stripped of a series of international honours over a Rohingya exodus that began in August last year.

The international human rights group named Suu Kyi as its 2009 Ambassador of Conscience Award recipient when she was still under house arrest for her opposition to Myanmar’s oppressive military junta.

In the eight years since she was released, Suu Kyi led her party to election victory in 2015 and set up a government the following year, but she has to share power with generals and has no oversight over the security forces.

In a statement yesterday, Amnesty International said she had failed to speak out and had “shielded the security forces from accountability” for the violence against the Rohingya, calling it a “shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for”.

The global advocacy organisation’s secretary general, Kumi Naidoo, wrote to Suu Kyi on Sunday saying the group was withdrawing the award because it was “profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defence of human rights”.

In March, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum rescinded its top award from Suu Kyi and she has had other honours withdrawn, including the freedom of the cities of Dublin and Oxford, England. – Reuters