SHAFAQNA- Leading international human rights group Amnesty International said Monday it is stripping Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of its top honor over the atrocities committed by the country’s military against the Muslim-majority Rohingya.
The UK-based human rights group on Monday said it was revoking the Ambassador of Conscience Award it gave Aung San Suu Kyi in 2009 during her 15-year house arrest.
“Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defence of human rights,” Amnesty chief Kumi Naidoo said in a letter to Aung San Suu Kyi released by the group, ALJAZEERA reported.
“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.”
It was the latest in a string of awards the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner lost since August 2017.
When Myanmar’s military drove 720,000 Rohingya muslims out of the Buddhist majority country in what the United Nations has called an act of genocide.
Many are believed to have been either murdered or tortured and raped.
Amnesty said it believes thousands of Rohingyas were killed in Myanmar’s western Rakhine province since the campaign began August 2017, straitstimes reported.
Last month, the 73-year-old was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship over her failure to speak up for the Rohingya.
In March, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum rescinded its top award while other honours, including the freedom of the cities of Dublin and Oxford, England, were also withdrawn.
She has also lost numerous smaller awards from individual universities and local and regional governments.
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