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Suhaimi Abdullah | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Myanmar State Counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi, in Singapore on August 21, 2018.
The Parliament of Canada officially stripped Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship on Tuesday for her complicity in the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people of Myanmar.
The Senate unanimously voted to strip Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar, of the symbolic honor awarded to her in 2007.
The decision of the upper house follows a similar vote in the House of Commons in the House of Commons last week.
Suu Kyi is the first person to have her Canadian citizenship revoked.
Last month, a United Nations fact-finding mission announced that the Myanmar army had systematically killed thousands of Rohingya civilians, burned hundreds of their villages, and engaged in ethnic cleansing. and mass mass rapes. He called for the highest generals to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.
The Senate also followed the example of the House of Commons in recognizing that the crimes against humanity committed by the army against the Rohingya constituted genocide.
"We must recognize this atrocity for what it is," said Senator Ratna Omidvar, who introduced the motion to revoke Suu Kyi's citizenship on Tuesday. "It's a genocide, we have to call it as it is."
Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her fight for democracy in Myanmar.
"At that time, she was a champion of change and human rights (…) The whole world entrusted her with her hope of becoming a bright light and a hope of a democratic Myanmar and peaceful, "said Omidvar. "As we all know now, this should not have been."
According to Omidvar, Suu Kyi denied atrocities, restricted access for journalists and international investigators, defended the army and refused humanitarian aid to the Rohingya.
"We need to send a strong signal, in Canada and around the world, that if you are an accomplice of the genocide, you are not welcome here – certainly not as an honorary Canadian citizen."
