AI withdraws honour from Myanmar leader
By Staff Reporter
Amnesty International (AI) has withdrawn its highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, from Myanmar’s President Aung San Suu Kyi.
The global human rights watchdog said Tuesday that it withdrew the honour from Suu Kyi because of her shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for.
On 11 November, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo wrote to Suu Kyi to inform her that the organisation was revoking the 2009 award.
“As an Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience, 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,” Naidoo wrote.
“Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defence of human rights. Amnesty International cannot justify your continued status as a recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience award and so with great sadness we are hereby withdrawing it from you.”
Naidoo expressed the organisation’s disappointment that Suu Kyi had not used her political and moral authority to safeguard human rights, justice or equality in Myanmar.
He stated that half way through her term in office, and eight years after her release from house arrest, she allowed atrocities to be committed by the Myanmar military and increased intolerance of freedom of expression.
Since Suu Kyi became the de facto leader of Myanmar’s civilian-led government in April 2016, her administration has been actively involved in the commission or perpetuation of multiple human rights violations.
Amnesty International has repeatedly criticised the failure of Suu Kyi and her government to speak out about military atrocities against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State, who have lived for years under a system of segregation and discrimination amounting to apartheid.
During the campaign of violence unleashed against the Rohingya last year the Myanmar security forces killed thousands, raped women and girls, detained and tortured men and boys, and burned hundreds of homes and villages to the ground.
More than 720, 000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh.
A UN report has called for senior military officials to be investigated and prosecuted for the crime of genocide.
