WHEN she was awarded the Freedom of the City Of Edinburgh in 2005, the world knew her as the heroine who defied Myanmar’s military dictatorship, but 13 years later Aung San Suu Kyi is to lose that honour in relation to her lack of action regarding the persecution of the Rohingya people.
A motion to immediately remove the Freedom of Edinburgh from Suu Kyi is expected to be passed by the Edinburgh City Council at its meeting tomorrow.
The move follows the Myanmar leader’s failure to respond to a letter from Lord Provost Frank Ross calling on her to intervene to stop the violence in the Rakhine province which forced some 700,000 Rohingya people to flee the country.
At the time, Lord Provost Ross wrote: “The City of Edinburgh Council condemns the violence in Rakhine in the strongest possible terms and calls on you to use your immeasurable moral courage and influence to allow the United Nations to intervene as swiftly as possible, and to ensure the safe return of the Rohingya people.”
Ten months later, and despite using diplomatic channels, Edinburgh has had no reply from its freewoman, and she will now become only the second person in 130 years to be removed from the Freedom roll.
The previous person to have it stripped was Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell who was awarded the honour in April 1899 only to have it withdrawn in December, 1990, after his adulterous affair with Katharine O’Shea became a public and political sensation.
Tomorrow’s motion in the name of Lord Provost Ross “notes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Northern Rakhine and in the refugee camps of neighbouring Bangladesh” and “expresses disappointment that there has been no communication from Aung San Suu Kyi” and removes the award of the Freedom of the City “effective immediately”.
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