Bob Geldof is to hand back his Freedom of the City of Dublin in protest at Aung San Suu Kyi holding the same accolade while Burma carries out “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya.
The Live Aid founder and musician blasted the Burmese Nobel peace laureate, saying she was a “handmaiden to genocide” whose association with the capital “shames us all”.
Ms Suu Kyi, Burma’s civilian leader, has faced widespread criticism and anger over the country’s violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority, described by the UN as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.
In a statement Mr Geldof said he would hand the award back at City Hall on Monday morning, because while he was a “proud Dubliner” he did not want the ceremonial title while Ms Suu Kyi also held it.
READ MORE: Paisley riding wave of optimism as it bids for City of Culture status
He said: “Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honoured her, now she appals and shames us.
“In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of north-west Burma.
“I am a founding patron of The Aegis Trust, who are concerned with genocide prevention and studies. Its founders built and maintain the National Holocaust Museum of the UK.
“I spoke at the inaugural National Holocaust Memorial Day at Westminster and in my time, I have walked amongst peoples who were sectionally targeted with ethnic cleansing.
“I would be a hypocrite now were I to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder, complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide.”
More than 600,000 of the minority group have fled the northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh to avoid violence from Burmese security forces since August, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.
The Buddhist majority in Burma, also known as Myanmar, regard the Rohingya as foreign immigrants rather than Burmese.
READ MORE: Paisley riding wave of optimism as it bids for City of Culture status
Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”, has acknowledged the criticism.
Last month she called for national unity, saying efforts were being made to stem the humanitarian crisis in the makeshift refugee camps strung along the border with Bangladesh.
It is not the first time Mr Geldof has spoken out against her. Last month at a summit in Colombia he described her as “one of the great ethnic cleansers of our planet”.
In his Sunday statement Mr Geldof added: “The moment she is stripped of her Dublin Freedom perhaps the council would see fit to restore to me that which I take such pride in. If not, so be it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel