Canada revoked the Honorary Citizenship from Myanmmar civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi according to the breaking reports on Thursday. The Members of Canadian parliament has reported voted unanimously to strip the Honorary Citizenship conferred upon the Burmese leader in 2007 for failing to act against atrocities met on Muslim minorities in the country.
“The Canadian parliament has voted unanimously to strip Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader, of her honorary citizenship after global criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis.” said the report in The Telegraph on Thursday by adding that Ottawa had awarded the symbolic honour, which does not afford Canadian rights or privileges, to the Nobel laureate in 2007 after she endured years of house arrest as a political prisoner.
The press secretary of foreign Affairs Minister said that the government has supported the motion to strip the honorary citizenship for Suu Kyi’s failure to speak out against the violence used by the military against the Rohingya Muslims in the state of Rakhine state.
“Our government supported this motion in response to her continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power,” the press secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
“We will continue to support the Rohingya people through humanitarian assistance, targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s generals and by pushing for accountability for those responsible through an appropriate international body,” he added.
More than 7,00,000 Rohingya people in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State have fled the country to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the violence. On September 19, the International Criminal Court launched a preliminary probe into the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh according to the National Herald.
Aung San Suu Kyi shared the Canadian Honorary Citizenship with the likes of Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, the Aga Khan and Malala Yousafzai.