Aung San Suu Kyi loses Freedom of Oxford award for turning blind eye to Rohingya crisis

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been formally stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford award over her response to the oppression of her country's Rohingya Muslims.

Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends a welcoming ceremony in Beijing Reuters

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been formally stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford award over her response to the oppression of her country's Rohingya Muslims.

Following a preliminary vote in October, the Oxford city council voted on Monday to permanently remove the honour.

"Today we have taken the unprecedented step of stripping her of the city's highest honour because of her inaction in the face of oppression of the minority Rohingya population," said city councillor Mary Clarkson in a statement posted on Oxford city council's twitter page.

Oxford city council voted unanimously to permanently remove the honour given to the de facto leader of Myanmar in 1997, and said it did not want to celebrate "those who turn a blind eye to violence".

The vote comes on the same day Myanmar's powerful army chief told Pope Francis there is "no religious discrimination" in Myanmar.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh amid reports of atrocities in Rakhine at the hands of the Burmese military.

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