Canada MPs vote to strip Myanmar’s Suu Kyi of honorary citizenship

Canadian lawmakers have voted unanimously to revoke the honorary citizenship of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in response to crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The motion was originally proposed by the opposition Bloc Quebecois party, and gained cross-party support in the lower Canadian House of Commons on Thursday. Suu Kyi received the citizenship in 2007.

The move by MPs came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that parliament was reconsidering whether Ms Suu Kyi still deserved the honour of citizenship.

But he said the move would not end the crisis in Myanmar, where hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya have fled a government crackdown.

Earlier this month, the House of Commons unanimously voted to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as an act of “genocide”.

Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland hailed the move at the time as an “important step” in “leading an international effort for justice and accountability for the Rohingya.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson called for Suu Kyi to be accountable for the plight of the Rohingya and “a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power.”

Growing International Scrutiny

A UN report last month said Myanmar military leaders must be investigated for genocide against the Rohingya Muslims. UN investigators released a damning report last Tuesday asserting that Rohingya Muslims faced four of five prohibited acts defined as genocide at the hands of Myanmar’s military.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) consequently announced it had opened a preliminary investigation into the matter.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) also voted in favor of establishing a body to prepare criminal indictments over the atrocities on Thursday. 

PressTV-UN to prepare indictments over Myanmar atrocities

A new UN panel will prepare criminal indictments over atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

The recent international outcry has been accompanied by a rare expression of concern by the US State Department on Monday, which released a report detailing Myanmar military’s “well-planned and coordinated” atrocities.

The plight of the Rohingya Muslims, long suffering in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, has attracted Western attention only recently.

Members of the persecuted minority have been denied citizenship and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship, but has granted them refuge on humanitarian grounds.

There are four million Rohingya around the world, the majority living outside their ancestral land. More than 700,000 members of the minority have fled the state-sponsored violence to Bangladesh over the last year.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees by 2020, followed up by an agreement with the UN last month.

Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh and experts say a recent deal between Myanmar and the United Nations falls short of guaranteeing safe return to Myanmar,

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Myanmar authorities of intentionally delaying the return of more than the Rohingya refugees.

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