Suu Kyi to be stripped of Freedom of Edinburgh award for her silence on Rohingya abuse

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is set to be stripped of another honour for her refusal to condemn the violence committed by the military against the Rohingyas at Rakhine State.

Freedom of Edinburgh award is the seventh honour that the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner is losing over the past year, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Oxford, Glasgow and Newcastle also revoked Suu Kyi’s Freedom of the City awards.

Suu Kyi was given the Freedom of Edinburgh award in 2005 for her role in establishing peace and democracy in Myanmar, where she was living under house arrest.

At the time the Lord Provost of Edinburgh compared Suu Kyi to Nelson Mandela, according to The Guardian.

The Lord Provost also described her as “a symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression. By honouring her Edinburgh citizens will be publicly supporting her tireless work for democracy and human rights”.

However, as state counsellor in Myanmar, Suu Kyi has repeatedly refused to speak out against the army atrocities that caused an exodus of around 700,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh over the past year.

The United Nations, among others in the international community, has said the violence amounted to “ethnic cleansing”.

Frank Ross, the city’s Lord Provost, wrote to Suu Kyi in November calling on her “immeasurable moral courage and influence” and asking her to allow the safe return of the Rohingya to Rahkine.

Following no communication from Suu Kyi, Ross tabled a council motion on Thursday calling for her freedom of the city to be removed with immediate effect, The Guardian said.

This will only be the second time in 200 years that Edinburgh has revoked a freedom of the city award, following Charles Parnell in 1890, an Irish nationalist who fell into disrepute for a scandalous affair, according to the report.

In her latest remarks on the issue on Tuesday, Suu Kyi tried to pressure Bangladesh accusing it of delaying the beginning of the Rohingya repatriation process.

She continued refusing to call the Rohingyas by their name, who are called ‘Bengalis’ in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in a refusal of their basic rights like citizenship, access to education, and health care.

She also hailed her government’s relations with the army, whose many generals are sanctioned by the US, Canada, and the European Union for the brutal crackdown on the Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi blamed terrorism, not the military, for the violence in Rahkine and criticised the international community, saying: “The outside world can choose the issues on which they wish to focus.”

In response to the events in Rahkine, Suu Kyi has been stripped of a variety of accolades and awards.

The most high profile withdrawal came from the US Holocaust museum in March, who revoked the Elie Weisel award, given to Suu Kyi in 2012, for her refusal to condemn the mass killing of the Rohingya.

LSE Students Union also stripped Suu Kyi of the title of honourary President and UNISON revoked her honourary membership.