Suu Kyi suspended from Sakharov Prize community

GBNEWS24 DESK//

Aung San Suu Ski, Myanmar’s State Counsellor. has been suspended from the Sakharov Prize community.

She was awarded the top human rights prize in 1990 but was only able to collect it in person in 2013, having been released from a 15 year house arrest in 2010. She will no longer be able to take part in events for laureates.

Spokesperson for the European Parliament, Jaume Duch, tweeted that the “decision sanctions her lack of actions and her acceptance of the ongoing crimes against the Rohingya community in Myanmar.”

Suu Ski received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

More than 700,000 Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a bloody crackdown in 2017 by the Myanmar military, which UN investigators have concluded was carried out with “genocidal intent”.

Myanmar has refused accusations of genocide and most allegations of targeted military-led violence, saying that its actions were meant to protect the country against Rohingya “militants”.

In a speech in December at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that lasted about 30 minutes, Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country’s military against allegations of genocide, but she did not use the word Rohingya once, in a 3,379-word speecj.

Critics said her refusal was part of Myanmar’s attempt to strip the minority of their identity and rights.