Kochi: A Kerala-based Islamic outfit has written to the Norwegian Nobel Institute to revoke the Nobel prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi, alleging that the Myanmar government guided by her has persecuted the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country.
The Popular Front of India (PFI) alleged that not only was the Myanmarese government denying citizenship to the Rohingya population, Suu Kyi herself was “lying blatantly that everything is merely is a misinformation campaign.”
“It is a matter of contempt and shame that they are compelled to leave their homelands under the threat of a government headed by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1991 while she was under house arrest of the military regime,” said E Abubacker, PFI chairman.
Suu Kyi is the first and incumbent state counsellor and leader of the National League for Democracy of Myanmar.
“We demand that the Norwegian Nobel institute revoke the Nobel Prize awarded to Ms Suu Kyi, and if it cannot happen, please join the humanitarian sentiments in all parts of the world by openly censuring her for her lead in the perpetuation of violence against Rohingya Muslims,” the letter said.
The United Nations had yesterday said that the situation in Myanmar is a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, as the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh topped 300,000.
The Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, have faced decades of persecution in Myanmar where they are regarded as illegal immigrants.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had accused Myanmar of waging a “systematic attack” on the minority and warned that “ethnic cleansing” seemed to be under way.
Suu Kyi has come in for strong international criticism over the military crackdown on the Rohingya, which began when militants from the minority ambushed security forces on August 25.
—PTI