Amnesty International strips Aung San Suu Kyi of highest honour
London, Nov 12: Amnesty International on Monday stripped Aung San Suu Kyi of its highest honour over the de facto Myanmar leader's "indifference" to the atrocities committed by the country's military against Rohingya Muslims.
The London-based global human rights organisation said it was revoking the Ambassador of Conscience Award it gave Suu Kyi in 2009 while she was still under house arrest.
"Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defence of human rights," Amnesty International chief Kumi Naidoo said in a letter to Suu Kyi released by the group.
"Amnesty International cannot justify your continued status as a recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience award and so with great sadness we are hereby withdrawing it from you." The group said it informed Suu Kyi of the decision on Sunday. She has so far issued no public response.
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to power in 2015 in a landslide victory ending decades of military rule in the southeast Asian country of around 50 million.
But her tenure has been marred by a failure to speak up for Rohingya Muslims who were driven out of the country by the army in what the United Nations has called an ethnic cleansing campaign.
The 73-year-old was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship over her failure to speak up for the Rohingyas last month.
She has also lost numerous smaller awards from individual universities and local and regional governments.
More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled the Buddhist majority's western Rakhine state in a military crackdown from August last year.
Many are believed to have been either murdered or tortured and raped.
Suu Kyi was globally hailed as a freedom fighter who stood up to her country's feared military dictatorship while spending 15 years under house arrest.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
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Three injured in accident after private bus hits car in Karnataka's Mandya district
Mandya (Karnataka) (PTI): Three people were injured after a private tourist bus allegedly rammed into a car from behind in the early hours of Monday in Mandya district, police said.
The accident occurred around 4.30 am on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway near Budanur, within the limits of Mandya Rural police station.
According to police, the Kerala-bound bus was en route to Bengaluru via Mandya when it allegedly hit the car moving ahead, injuring its sole occupant, identified as Duraiswamy. Two passengers on the bus also sustained injuries. Following the accident, the bus allegedly crashed into a roadside barrier. All the injured were shifted to a hospital for treatment.
A case has been registered at Mandya Rural police station, and the bus has been seized. Further investigation is underway, police added.
