British trade union Unison suspends award to Suu Kyi as Rohingya crisis deepens

Britain’s second largest trade union Unison has suspended an award given to Aung San Suu Kyi during her time as a political prisoner as a number of British institutions say they are reviewing or removing honours bestowed on her.

The Guardian reported the move by Unison and the plan of the other institutions Wednesday amid mounting international pressure on Suu Kyi for her “tepid response to Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis”.

Unison announced that it is to suspend Suu Kyi’s honorary membership, and urged the de facto leader of Myanmar government to “do more” to denounce the plight of the country’s Rohingya people.

Suu Kyi received the honours during her campaign for democracy under Myanmar’s oppressive military junta.

Hopes of a solution to the decades old Rohingya crisis also rose when Suu Kyi’s party won the election in 2015 with no voting rights for hundreds of Rohingyas, who Myanmar denies citizenship.

Suu Kyi and her party have been facing criticism since the election for not raising voice against the abuse of the ethnic minority.

Around 400,000 Rohingyas had fled decades of violence in Myanmar only to live in misery in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Another 400,000 Rohingyas joined the old refugees when the new wave of atrocities against the ethnic group started in Myanmar following insurgent attacks on police posts and an army base on Aug 25 this year.

The UN fears the number may reach 1 million if the situation Myanmar’s Rakhine State continues.

It has called for emergency aid as the humanitarian crisis in the refugee camps in Bangladesh is deteriorating.

“The situation facing the Rohingya of Myanmar is appalling,” Margaret McKee, Unison’s President, told The Guardian.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary membership of Unison has been suspended, and we hope that she responds to international pressure.”

Bristol University is one of a string of universities that awarded honorary degrees to the Burmese leader during her time in opposition.

According to The Guardian report, the university also said it was reviewing its award in light of accusations of brutal mistreatment of the Rohingya, described by the UN as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

“The university shares the growing concern with the ongoing situation in Myanmar,” the report quoted a spokesperson for the university as saying.

The spokesperson said the university awarded Suu Kyi an honorary degree of doctor of laws in 1998.

“In terms of this award it would be wrong to make any decision at this time to consider revoking such an honour but we will continue to monitor and review the situation as necessary,” the spokesperson added, according to the Guardian report.

The London School of Economics student union said it would be stripping the former political prisoner of her honorary presidency, The Guardian reported.

“We will be actively removing Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary presidency as a symbol of our opposition to her current position and inaction in the face of genocide,” Mahatir Pasha, the union’s general secretary, told the newspaper.

Suu Kyi has been awarded with honorary degrees from several British universities including Glasgow, Bath and Cambridge, as well as the freedom of several cities, and other honours, The Guardian said.

Oxford councillors have announced that they may reconsider the freedom of the city of Oxford awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1997 at next month’s council meeting, the newspaper reported, citing another report by the Oxford Mail.

Suu Kyi has close links with the city of Oxford. She had studied at St Hugh’s College there as an undergraduate in the 1960s. Her late husband, Michael Aris, was an academic at the university.

Oxford awarded an honorary doctorate to Suu Kyi in 1993 but she was unable to collect it until 2012.

As a leader of Myanmar’s opposition Aung San Suu Kyi won international praise and a Nobel peace prize in 1991.

Many have now called for stripping her of even the Nobel Prize. Her fellow Nobel Peace Prize owners, including Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, have urged her to speak against the atrocities against the Rohingyas.

The UK on Tuesday announced suspension of training of the Myanmar military.

Amnesty International, among many other rights groups, criticised Suu Kyi for failing to address the allegations of abuse by the military on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

After her address to the nation on Tuesday, Amnesty said Suu Kyi and her government were “still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State”.

It called the speech a “mix of untruths and victim-blaming”.