Holocaust Museum revokes Suu Kyi’s human rights award

Aung Suu Kyi. AP FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON — The United States Holocaust Museum is revoking a major human rights award given to Aung San Suu Kyi Myanmar’s civilian leader.

The museum announced Wednesday that the Elie Wiesel Award given to Suu Kyi in 2012 would be rescinded. Museum officials cited her refusal to condemn the mass killings of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

Suu Kyi was a Mandela-like figure in Myanmar who spent years under house arrest for opposing the country’s military dictatorship. She became an international rallying point and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Her party won a landslide victory in 2015 and she became state counsellor.

But Suu Kyi’s international reputation has plummeted over the Rohingya massacres and she has been criticized as an apologist for the purges.