Amnesty International has revoked a significant human rights award from Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, following the Myanmar leader has lost her credibility as a pro-democracy icon for her refusal to stop the brutal, systemic persecution of the Rohingya people inside her country’s borders and what it described as a “shameful betrayal” of the values she once stood for.
“You no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defense of human rights,” Amnesty International’s secretary general, Kumi Naidoo, said in explaining the human-rights group’s decision.
"Our expectation was that you would continue to use your moral authority to speak out against injustice wherever you saw it, not least within Myanmar itself," Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty's secretary general said in a letter to Suu Kyi.
More than 700,000 members of the mostly stateless group fled across Myanmar's western border into Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks on the security forces.
U.N.-mandated investigators have accused the military of unleashing a campaign of killings, rape and arson with "genocidal intent".
Suu Kyi's administration rejected the findings as one-sided, and said the military action was engaged in a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.
