The City of London announced on Thursday that it had removed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the honor it had been awarded three years earlier, due to the fate of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma.
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" The groundbreaking decision we made today reflects the City of London Corporation's condemnation of human rights abuses in Burma, " said David Wootton, chair of the committee responsible for the award of honors. Aung San Suu Kyi had received in 2017 received the Honorary Freedom Prize, the highest personal distinction granted by the political committee of the City of London, an organization which administers the historic and financial heart of the British capital. The award recognized his " non-violent struggle waged for many years in favor of democracy, and his continued dedication to creating a society where people can live free, peaceful and secure ."
Since August 2017, around 740,000 Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh to flee the atrocities of Burmese soldiers and Buddhist militias, described as " genocide " by UN investigators. The exact number of Rohingyas killed in the violence is not known, but NGOs estimate that it is several thousand. Before Aung San Suu Kyi, the British statesman Winston Churchill, the figure of the fight against apartheid in South Africa Nelson Mandela or even the scientist Stephen Hawking had been awarded this honor.
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