Alert: Myanmar / UN - Appeal against choice of Myanmar leader Suu Kyi to head anti-discrimination campaign
By IHRC
UNAIDS appoints Aung San
Suu Kyi as Zero Discrimination Global Advocate
Contents
1. Action Required
2. Summary
3. Background
4. Sample Letter
1. Action Required
Please write to UNAIDS and express your concern about
choosing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Mynamar opposition leader as UNAIDS Global
Advocate for Zero Discrimination heading the ‘zero discrimination’ campaign in
light of her lack of concern for the extreme suffering – include hate based
violent expulsion and exclusion - of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
2. Summary
UNAIDS have chosen Myanmar opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi to front a campaign against discrimination when she has failed to address
violent hatred against Rohingya in particular and Muslims in general in
Myanmar.
3. Background
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, being an
influential leader of Myanmar’s National League of Democracy, was sadly heard
in an interview playing down the horrific atrocities suffered by the Rohingya
community.
She was recently chosen as UNAIDS Global Advocate to front
a ‘zerodiscrimination’ campaign under the United Nations Joint Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and was recorded as saying,
“I believe in a world where everyone can flower and
blossom. We can all make a difference by
reaching out and letting people lead a life of dignity
irrespective of who they are,” said Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. “I invite everyone to Open up, Reach out and
end discrimination.”
Her above-mentioned statement is in sharp contrast to her
unconcerned attitude towards the plight of the Rohingya minority which was made
apparent in the recent interview. She avoided direct condemnation of the
Rohingya persecution and tried changing the subject to avoid certain
controversial questions. In one response she stated,
“Yes, Muslims have been targeted, but also Buddhists
have been subjected to violence. But there’s fear on both sides and this is
what is leading to all these troubles and we would like the world to
understand: that the reaction of the Buddhists is also based on fear.”
When asked to accept that 140,000 Muslims that have been
displaced because of persecution, she generalized and avoided answering the
question by stating,
“I think there are many, many Buddhists who have also left
the country for various reasons. This is a result of our sufferings under a
dictatorial regime.”
Her words of condemnation were so general they were empty
of any empathy or understanding of the intensity of the Rohingya suffering.
When asked “Do you condemn the anti-Muslim violence?” Suu Kyi replied, “I
condemn any movement that is based on hatred and extremism.”
Her equivocal attitude towards the mass-scale genocidal
acts against Muslims in Myanmar in particular the Ronhingya is very shocking
and in sharp contrast to the anti-discrimination campaigns she supports and the
peace titles she has been awarded.
Please write to UNAIDS and express your concern about
their choice of Global Advocate.
4. Sample Letters
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Sample letters are given below for your convenience. Please note
that model letters can be sent directly or adjusted as necessary to include
further details. If you receive a reply to the letter you send, we request you
to send a copy of the letter you send and the reply you received, to IHRC. This
is very important as it helps IHRC to monitor the situation with regards to our
campaigns and to improve upon the current model letters.
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Michel Sidibé
UNAIDS Executive Director
UNAIDS Secretariat
20, Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 791 4187
Email: communications@unaids.org
[Your Name]
[Your address]
Date
Dear Michel Sidibé
Re: Appeal against choosing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to front
anti-discrimination campaign
I am deeply concerned about your recent appointment of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi as the UNAIDS Global Advocate for the Zero Discrimination
campaign.
Ms Suu Kyi’s ambivalence towards the situation of
Ronhingya has been interpreted as lack of concern and an apparently indifferent
attitude towards the mass displacement and persecution of the Rohingya minority
in Myanmar.
Given her failure to address this issue, I feel her choice
as Global Advocate is a very poor one, and I am very disappointed in UNAIDS.
UNAIDS has inadvertently endorsed the racist and anti-Muslim sentiment
that is rife in Myanmar right now, and I hope you will now use this as an
opportunity to either ask Ms. Suu Kyi to make clear statements of support for
persecuted minorities in Myanmar and against the violent racism they have been
facing.
If she does not, I urge you to revoke her appointment as
UNAIDS Global Advocate for the Zero Discrimination campaign as her lack of
empathy and absence of immediate action to resolve the plight of her own people
proves is at best deeply problematic.
It can do the Zero Discrimination campaign little good to
have an advocate who does not condemn discrimination at her own door.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely
[Signature]
[Name]
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