Kumi slates Suu Kyi
Former peace icon ‘chose to overlook and excuse the brutal oppression of the Rohingya’
RECENTLY appointed Amnesty International secretary-general Kumi Naidoo has had harsh words for Myanmar Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi regarding the deteriorating human-rights situation in the southeast Asian country.
Following the first democratic elections in 2015 after the 1962 military coup, Suu Kyi took office as State Counsellor in the Myanmar government. The position is regarded as equivalent to prime minister.
Naidoo’s global human rights NGO last week, withdrew its “Ambassador of Conscience Award” which it conferred on Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, nine years ago.
In a strongly worded letter to Suu Kyi sent from the organisation’s London head office, Naidoo said: “Our expectation was that you would continue to use your moral authority to speak out against injustice wherever you saw it, not least within Myanmar itself.”
He expressed Amnesty International’s deep alarm over the betrayal of the values that the former peace icon had promoted for decades, during both her exile in Britain and while held in detention by the military authorities in Myanmar.
“You have chosen to overlook and excuse the brutal oppression (of), and crimes against humanity committed by the military against the Rohingya, and against the minorities in Kachin and northern states.”
Suu Kyi lived in Oxford, where her late husband Michael Aris was a university professor while Naidoo, who was born in Durban, was a doctoral student there in the late 1990s.
“Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage and the undying defence of human rights,” said Naidoo, explaining the reasoning behind the decision to take back the coveted award.
The formal letter, signed by Naidoo, was delivered to Suu Kyi two days before the public announcement of the withdrawal of the award in London on November 13.
According to recent UN statistics, 925 000 people, comprising mainly Muslim Rohingya, have crossed the border to Bangladesh since August 25, 2017.
That was when Myanmar security forces unleashed terror on the villages in eastern Rakhine state.
The UN Human Rights Council described violence against the Rohingya as “the gravest crimes under international law” and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes and prosecute those responsible.