Oxford University Drops Aung San Suu Kyi’s Name From Common Room

Students voted to remove the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s name from the junior common room with immediate effect.

Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo: Reuters)

The students at Oxford University, where Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi studied, have voted to remove her name from the title of their Junior Common Room for her inability to condemn the human rights violations against Muslims in Myanmar’s Rohingya region.

Students of St Hugh's College voted to remove the Nobel laureate's name from the junior common room with immediate effect on Thursday, 19 October.

Suu Kyi’s inability to condemn the mass murder, gangrape and severe human rights abuses in Rakhine is inexcusable and unacceptable. She has gone against the very principles and ideals she had once righteously promoted. We must condemn Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence and complicity on this issue and her condonation of the human rights offences is her own land.

University’s resolution 

Suu Kyi graduated from St Hugh’s in 1967 and was granted an honorary doctorate from the university in 2012.

The Junior Common Room resolution by undergraduates at her former institution is the latest move against Suu Kyi by UK institutions to revoke honours bestowed upon her in the wake of the Rohingya crisis, which has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Last month, a portrait of the leader hanging prominently at the entrance of St Hugh’s College was removed.

While the move was not overtly linked to the Rohingya crisis, it is widely believed that the allegations of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar was the reason behind this decision.

At the beginning of October, the Oxford City Council voted in favour of revoking the Freedom of Oxford granted to Suu Kyi in 1997 for her "long struggle for democracy".

A cross-party motion was unanimously passed by the council, which said it was "no longer appropriate" for her to hold the honour.

The city council will hold a special meeting to confirm the honour is removed on 27 November.

The City of London Corporation has also been debating revoking Suu Kyi’s Honorary Freedom, bestowed upon her earlier this year.

A Bangladeshi-origin corporation member, Munsur Ali, recently instructed the committee in charge of overseeing applications for honours to examine whether the honour could be removed.

The Myanmar leader has faced a lot of international criticism over her perceived failure to take action against the Myanmar Army's repression of the Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest in Yangon (Rangoon) as a campaigner for democracy while Myanmar was ruled by a military dictatorship, had been widely respected as a figurehead of human rights and freedom.

But now her failure to act decisively against a military crackdown on Rohingya has become the focus of worldwide attention.

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