Ireland

Bob Geldof hands back freedom of Dublin in protest over Aung San Suu Kyi

Bob Geldof arrives at City Hall in Dublin to hand back his Freedom of the City of Dublin, in protest against Burmese Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same award 
Bob Geldof arrives at City Hall in Dublin to hand back his Freedom of the City of Dublin, in protest against Burmese Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same award  Bob Geldof arrives at City Hall in Dublin to hand back his Freedom of the City of Dublin, in protest against Burmese Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same award 

Bob Geldof has handed back his Freedom of the City of Dublin in protest at Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same accolade while Burma carries out "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya.

The Live Aid founder and musician blasted the Burmese Nobel peace laureate, saying she was a "handmaiden to genocide" whose association with the capital "shames us all".

Ms Suu Kyi, Burma's civilian leader, has faced widespread criticism and anger over the country's violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority, described by the UN as "textbook ethnic cleansing".

Bob Geldof in Dublin to return freedom of the city over award's association with Aung San Suu Kyi | Read more: https://t.co/WKlLLOY2vy pic.twitter.com/xP3OqUlKu9 — RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 13, 2017

Mr Geldof said: "Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honoured her, now she appals and shames us.

"In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of north-west Burma.

"I'm a Dub and this meant very much to me" - Bob Geldof returns freedom of Dublin over Aung San Suu Kyi link | More: https://t.co/WKlLLOY2vy pic.twitter.com/ONlb5ZJIvP — RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 13, 2017

"I am a founding patron of The Aegis Trust, who are concerned with genocide prevention and studies. Its founders built and maintain the National Holocaust Museum of the UK.

"I spoke at the inaugural National Holocaust Memorial Day at Westminster and in my time, I have walked amongst peoples who were sectionally targeted with ethnic cleansing.

"I would be a hypocrite now were I to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder, complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide."

More than 600,000 of the minority group have fled the northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh to avoid violence from Burmese security forces since August, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.

The Buddhist majority in Burma, also known as Myanmar, regard the Rohingya as foreign immigrants rather than Burmese.

Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights", has acknowledged the criticism.

Last month she called for national unity, saying efforts were being made to stem the humanitarian crisis in the makeshift refugee camps strung along the border with Bangladesh.

It is not the first time Mr Geldof has spoken out against her. Last month at a summit in Colombia he described her as "one of the great ethnic cleansers of our planet".

In a statement released on Sunday, Mr Geldof added: "The moment she is stripped of her Dublin Freedom perhaps the council would see fit to restore to me that which I take such pride in. If not, so be it."

On Saturday fellow Irish musicians U2 also criticised Burma's civilian leader, urging her to fight harder against serious violence inflicted by the nation's own security forces.

The musicians, led by singer Bono, posted a lengthy plea on the band's website, saying they had tried several times to reach out to her directly.

They claimed that her failure to challenge the targeting of thousands of Rohingya was "starting to look a lot like assent".

They wrote: "So we say to you now what we would have said to her: the violence and terror being visited on the Rohingya people are appalling atrocities and must stop.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's silence is starting to look a lot like assent.

"As Martin Luther King said: 'The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people'.

"The time has long passed for her to stand up and speak out."