Suu Kyi’s link to city shames us, says Geldof

BOB GELDOF yesterday returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin scroll in a protest against Aung San Suu Kyi also holding the honour.

The musician and Live Aid organiser criticised the Nobel peace laureate over Burma’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, calling her a “handmaiden to genocide” and saying the city had “been duped”.

Geldof, who was born close to the Irish capital, returned the award at Dublin’s City Hall. “Dublin shouldn’t have any link with this woman. We’ve been duped, she’s a murderer,” he said.

He also demanded that the Burma leader hand back her Nobel Prize “and perhaps she should appear at The Hague tribunals”.

Geldof earlier said Ms Suu Kyi’s “association with our city shames us all”.

“In my time, I have walked amongst peoples who were sectionally targeted with ethnic cleansing,” he said.

“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.”

The UN now estimates the majority of the Rohingya once living in Rakhine – previously estimated at around one million – have fled. Ms Suu Kyi says the Rohingya are now welcome back, if they meet contested “verification” criteria for re-entry.