Councillors vote to strip Burmese leader of Freedom of Newcastle
Councillors have voted to strip Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the Freedom of Newcastle, seven years after she received the honour.
Council leader Nick Forbes started the process in protest at the plight of the Rohingya people, and the motion was backed at a meeting on Wednesday night.
Motion agreed by full council, and referred to Constitutional Committee #nccmeetspic.twitter.com/XUirR7UMFE
-- NewcastleCityCouncil (@NewcastleCC) February 7, 2018
It was the first time someone has had the Freedom of the City withdrawn, and it will mean her name is removed from the wall of the Civic Centre where it has been engraved.
When it was proposed, Mr Forbes said it had been the right decision to make the honour in 2011 in recognition of her long struggle for democracy in Burma.
This would be the first time it's been proposed to revoke a Freedom of the City award in Newcastle #nccmeetspic.twitter.com/EUJUCCJOXz
-- NewcastleCityCouncil (@NewcastleCC) February 7, 2018
But since her election as the country's de facto leader there has been an international outcry over her lack of action to prevent alleged ethnic cleansing of her country's Rohingya Muslims by security forces.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi could be stripped of the Freedom of Newcastle over her failure to act against the persecution of the Rohingya people in Mynamar. Newcastle City Council meeting LIVE on Twitter and Facebook. #NCCMeets bit.ly/2nIuetX
Posted by Newcastle City Council on Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Mr Forbes told the meeting: "We take this step with enormous regret, that a voice that once so strongly reflected our values chose to be silent."
She has already lost the Freedom of Dublin and Oxford.
