The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has revoked a prestigious human rights award it had given to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, now Myanmar's civilian leader, faulting her for failing to halt or acknowledge the violence against her country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
Suu Kyi, who endured 15 years of house arrest for taking on the military dictatorship in Myanmar, was the second person to receive the award, in 2012. It was named after Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and one of the museum's founders.
The award, according to the museum, is given annually "to an internationally prominent individual whose actions have advanced the Museum's vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide and promote human dignity."
But Suu Kyi, the museum said, has failed to live up to that vision.
"We had hoped that you — as someone we and many others have celebrated for your commitment to human dignity and universal human rights — would have done something to condemn and stop the military's brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population," the museum said in a letter to Suu Kyi.
New York Times
