Suu Kyi Stripped of Freedom Award from Oxford

by TMO Staff

Last month, Oxford said it would strip Suu Kyi of its award and this week the recommendation was discussed at a council meeting, resulting in the revoking of her Freedom Award.

“Aung San Suu Kyi has denied any ethnic cleansing and dismissed numerous claims of sexual violence against Rohingya women as ‘fake rape,'” Councilor Mary Clarkson said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“Oxford has a long tradition of being a diverse and humane city, and our reputation is tarnished by honoring those who turn a blind eye to violence.”

Over 620,000 Rohingya have been fleeing and facing violence in Myanmar since August 25. As refugees they have been crossing the border into Bangladesh with history of executions, rape and torture.

The United Nations has declared the incident an ethnic cleansing and genocide, however Myanmar’s military says it was targeting terrorists who carried out a series of deadly attacks on security forces.

Others have returned their Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest of Suu Kyi’s award still in tact and her handling of the crisis, including Musician Bob Geldof.

“It turned out that she’s a killer, and I don’t want to be on the same list as what the UN described as a genocide,” Geldof said.

A Change.org petition calling for the Nobel Peace Prize committee to strip Suu Kyi of her award has gathered more than 430,000 signatures.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped of an award by the British city of Oxford, where she went to university, for her lack of involvement in preventing and resolving the Rohingya crisis.

The Oxford City Council voted unanimously to take the “unprecedented” step of revoking the city’s highest honor, the Freedom of the City of Oxford, that was bestowed upon her in 1997. She graduated from Oxford University’s St. Hugh’s College in 1967.

Suu Kyi continues to be criticized in the international community for failing to condemn the alleged ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine State.

“Today we have taken the unprecedented step of stripping her of her city’s highest honor because of her inaction in the face of oppression of the minority Rohingya population,” the Council said earlier this week.

The violence against the Rohingya community is increasing day by day. Those fleeing the violence especially continue to face violence in the countries they seek aid in. Women and girls particularly are at more risk with trafficking and sexual violence becoming more prominent.