Washington sources have reported that earlier on Wednesday the Museum announced that it was rescinding Suu Kyi's Elie Wiesel Award, which they presented to her in 2012. Meanwhile in a letter to Suu Kyi, Museum Director Sara Bloomfield insisted that they "did not take this decision lightly", but were compelled to act in light of mass displacements and killings of the Rohingya attributed to Myanmar's security forces.
According to sources the Nobel Laureate has been widely criticized for not taking a stronger stand in support of the Rohingya following mass displacements and disproportionate violence, particularly given her global standing. Meanwhile Bloomfield concludes, Suu Kyi's political party "refused to cooperate with UN investigators, promulgated hateful rhetoric against the Rohingya community, and denied access to and cracked down on journalists trying to uncover the scope of the crimes in Rakhine state".
Sources have stated that Suu Kyi studied at Oxford University's St Hugh's
College as an undergraduate. Her portrait in the college has since been
removed. Moreover the Elie Wiesel Award is named for the late Holocaust
survivor and author who, like Suu Kyi, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
