Irish musician and anti-poverty activist Bob Geldof will return his 'Freedom of the City of Dublin' award to his home town today, saying he could not continue to hold the honour with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Well over 600,000 Muslims from Myanmar's Rakhine state have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh after military clearance operations described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing were launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants.
The plight of the Rohingya has brought outrage from around the world and there have been calls for Suu Kyi to be stripped of the Nobel peace prize she won in 1991 because she has not condemned the Myanmar military's actions.
"I am a very proud Dubliner but cannot in all conscience continue to be one of the honoured few to have received this great tribute while Aung San Suu Kyi remains amongst that number," Geldof said in a statement.
"In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of North West Burma."
Suu Kyi, previously renowned for her human rights activism, was under house arrest when she was given the Freedom of Dublin in 1999...
