The Oxford college where Aung San Suu Kyi studied as an undergraduate has removed her portrait from public display and placed it in storage, in a move that follows international criticism over her role in Myanmar\u2019s humanitarian crisis .<\/p>\n
The governing body of St Hugh\u2019s college decided to remove the painting of the Nobel laureate from its main entrance on Thursday, days before the start of the university term and the arrival of new students.<\/p>\n
In 2012 Aung San Suu Kyi was celebrated with an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, and held her 67th birthday party at the college where she studied politics, philosophy and economics between 1964 and 1967.<\/p>\n
But in recent months Myanmar\u2019s leader has attracted increasing criticism for her apparent defence of the country\u2019s treatment of its Rohingya minority, who have suffered ethnic cleansing and violent attacks by Myanmar\u2019s military forces.<\/p>\n
In a statement St Hugh\u2019s said: \u201cThe college received the gift of a new painting earlier this month which will be exhibited for a period. The painting of Aung San Suu Kyi has, meanwhile, been moved to storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Hugh\u2019s student newsletter, The Swan, said the decision to remove the portrait was taken by the college\u2019s governing body, which includes the college\u2019s fellows and its principal, Dame Elish Angiolini.<\/p>\n
But the move by St Hugh\u2019s was described as cowardly by the Burma Campaign UK group, which urged the college to go further.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems a rather cowardly action by St Hugh\u2019s. If they have taken down the portrait because of Aung San Suu Kyi defending the Burmese military as they commit ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya they should say so and write to her urging her to respect human rights,\u201d said Mark Farmaner, the campaign\u2019s director.<\/p>\n
The portrait, painted by the artist Chen Yanning in 1997, belonged to Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s husband, the Oxford academic Michael Aris. After Aris\u2019s death in 1999 the portrait was bequeathed to St Hugh\u2019s, and hung near the college\u2019s main entrance on St Margaret\u2019s Road in north Oxford.<\/p>\n
The college\u2019s other notable alumni include Theresa May, Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, and Barbara Castle, a cabinet minister in Harold Wilson\u2019s Labour governments.<\/p>\n
As a leader of Myanmar\u2019s opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel peace prize in 1991. Despite being barred from running for president, she won a decisive victory in the country\u2019s 2015 election , and was eventually given a title of state counsellor.<\/p>\n
Oxford council is to vote next week on stripping Aung San Suu Kyi of the freedom of the city it bestowed on her in 1997, when she was being held as a political prisoner by Myanmar\u2019s military junta.<\/p>\n
So far Oxford University has decided not to reconsider Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s honorary degree. But last week the university expressed its \u201cprofound concern\u201d over the treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority.<\/p>\n
The university said it \u201chopes the Myanmar administration, led by Oxford alumna Aung San Suu Kyi, can eliminate discrimination and oppression, and demonstrate to the world that Myanmar values the lives of all its citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Oxford college where Aung San Suu Kyi studied as an undergraduate has removed her portrait from public display and placed it in storage, in a move that follows international criticism over her role in Myanmar\u2019s humanitarian crisis . The governing body of St Hugh\u2019s college decided to remove the painting of the Nobel laureate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6457,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6455\/revisions\/6457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}