Sir, – The Rohingya community in Ireland welcomes the gesture of Galway City Council in stripping Aung San Suu Kyi of the freedom of the city bestowed in 2005, and the resolution calling to endorse the UN fact-finding mission report to refer the Myanmar military to the International Criminal Court for genocide against Rohingya.
The overwhelming support for both resolutions sends a clear message of condemnation of the gravest crimes committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, as well as a message of solidarity with the victims and survivors of genocide.
Aung San Suu Kyi was the hope of many people inside and outside Burma at the time of the decade-long military regime. Her struggle under the house arrest was deserved to be recognised and honoured. However, her recent inaction to stand up for the persecuted Rohingya community, the failure to condemn the military for the genocide against Rohingya and war crimes against other ethnic minorities, and the denial of well-documented crimes against humanity deserve to be condemned.
The jailing of two Burmese Reuters journalists for investing the crimes of Myanmar Armed Forces, the rise of Islamophobia and hate crimes against religious and ethnic minorities, the continuous negligence of over 120,000 internally displaced Rohingya inside the Rakhine state of Myanmar, and the plight of more than a million Rohingya refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh highlight the moral failure of a former icon of democracy. – Yours, etc,
STEPHANIE
McDERMOTT,
HAIKAL MANSOR,
Rohingya Action
Ireland,
Carlow.