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Geldof accepting the freedom of Dublin city in 2006. PA Wire/PA Images

Bob Geldof defends decision to return the Freedom of the City of Dublin

Geldof says he doesn’t want to be associated with “handmaiden to genocide” Aung San Suu Kyi.

Update 10.45 am

BOB GELDOF IS to return his freedom of Dublin city in protest at the award also being held by Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Geldof has said he is “a very proud Dubliner” but that Suu Kyi is engaged with “ mass ethnic cleansing” and he in no way wants to be associated with her.

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Freedom of the City on 1 November 1999, the same day all the members of U2 also received the award.

Suu Kyi was under house arrest in Myanmar when she was honoured and she accepted it in person in 2012.

Geldof received the freedom of Dublin city in November 2005 but he has now said he will hand it back to the city manager at City Hall today at 11 am today.

Dublin City Council confirmed that Geldof would be “handing back the scroll he received” and that an official from the council would be there to accept it from him.

“It is with deep sadness and great regret that I feel obliged to return to Dublin City Council the great honour bestowed upon me of the Freedom of the City of Dublin, Geldof said in a statement.

I am a very proud Dubliner but cannot in all conscience continue to be one of the honoured few to have received this great tribute whilst Aung San Suu Kyi remains amongst that number. In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of north-west Burma.

Up to half a million Rohingya muslims have been fleeing Myanmar towards Bangladesh amid a military crackdown that has been has been described as ethnic cleansing.

The Rohingya people have had a long and troubled history in Myanmar, where many of the country’s 60 million people look at them with disdain.

Though members of the long-persecuted religious minority first arrived generations ago, they were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless.

Philippines ASEAN Myanmar Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Athit Perawongmetha / PA Images Athit Perawongmetha / PA Images / PA Images

Suu Kyi is the de facto leader of Myanmar although her actual power has been questioned with the country effectively run by the its military.

Despite this, Suu Kyi has not spoken out against the violence against the Rohingya, instead saying that the “great majority” of muslims within the conflict zone had not filed.

Geldof has now said Suu Kyi’s inaction has meant that she is “at best complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide.”

“I am a founding patron of The Aegis Trust who are concerned with genocide prevention and studies. Its founders built and maintain the National Holocaust Museum of the UK,” Geldof said.

I spoke at the inaugural National Holocaust Memorial Day at Westminster and in my time, I have walked amongst peoples who were sectionally targeted with ethnic cleansing. I would be a hypocrite now were I to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder, complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide.

“Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honoured her, now she appalls and shames us,” he added.

Dublin-born Geldof was awarded a KBE (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1986 due to his fundraising with the Live Aid project.

In a response to Geldof’s decision, Dublin’s mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha said that he was entitled to return his award but that he himself has spoken out against the killing of Rohingya muslims.

“As Ardmhéara I have condemned the persecution of the Rohingya people and their expulsion from their homes by the military in Myanmar and the failure of Aung San Suu Kyi to even acknowledge, let alone condemn, what the UN has described as ethnic cleansing,” Mac Donncha.

The mayor went on to say that he felt Geldof’s decision is “ironic” given his KBE from Britain’s Queen.

Regarding Mr Geldof himself, I find it ironic that he makes this gesture while proudly retaining his title as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, given the shameful record of British imperialism across the globe. Mr Geldof last year grossly insulted the men and women of the 1916 Rising in the centenary year when he compared them to so-called Islamic State, causing offence to Dubliners and Irish people generally.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke programme in response to Mac Donncha, Geldof said the Sinn Féin politician was deflecting.

“Sinn Féin is of course trying to distract attention from some non sequitur,” Geldof said.

The former Boomtown Rats singer has said that he would be proud to have the Freedom of the City of Dublin restored on him should it be stripped from Suu Kyi.

In the UK, the Freedom of Oxford was stripped from Suu Kyi last month.

Read: Rohingya crisis: Suu Kyi defends Myanmar against international criticism >

Read: Bob Geldof says Aung San Suu Kyi has become ‘one of the great ethnic cleansers’ >

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    Mute Daniel Morrissey
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    Apr 17th 2021, 12:20 AM

    Roll on the 26th change…. yawn…

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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Apr 17th 2021, 12:56 AM

    @Daniel Morrissey: lol. I know how you feel. How many bloomin people over 65 are in the country. They seem to go on forever hahaha

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    Mute Peter McGlynn
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    Apr 17th 2021, 1:12 AM

    @Anna Carr: I don’t know how many. How many people voted Fianna Fáil? In or around that amount.

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    Mute Ger
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    Apr 17th 2021, 3:06 AM

    @Anna Carr: it literally tells you in the article

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Apr 17th 2021, 3:16 AM

    @Ger: ah lighten up ger her comment was tongue in cheek jayus what are you not seeing there?

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 17th 2021, 5:13 AM

    @Daniel Morrissey: well yeah, can’t make them deliver it faster or make it ourselves so that’s what we have to do.

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    Mute Anto Curran
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    Apr 17th 2021, 8:00 AM

    @Peter McGlynn: obsessed with FF. Unless you’re playing an online game where you can try to fit FF into every comments section?

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    Mute Barbara Stewart
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    Apr 17th 2021, 11:55 AM

    @Anna Carr: Sorry for being 69 and delaying your vaccination….I could have said the same about all over 70s but I have a bit more respect!!!

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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    Apr 17th 2021, 1:54 AM

    You lost me at the word ‘plan’. I always thought they there was only one plan – lockdown. Why do something when you can get away with nothing.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 17th 2021, 5:14 AM

    @Tony Humphreys: well you thought wrong and then refused to think about it anymore

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    Mute Keith Richardson
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    Apr 17th 2021, 1:54 PM

    @Dave O’Keeffe: well there is no published plan on reopening. I’m sure there’s one on a desk somewhere. If people were treated like adults and told this then there would be increased confidence.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 18th 2021, 5:32 AM

    @Keith Richardson: no, if there was a widely publicised plan with an unpredictable pandemic and unreliable delivery schedules any changes would undermine the confidence you claim it would bring.

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    Mute Tarraing Mo Liathróidí
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    Apr 17th 2021, 8:02 AM

    The fact we still likely won’t restart tourism and hospitality till June or July is just mind boggling, especially given the fact MM despite some who said it was lies when I pointed out that leaky Leo said the same thing, that he can’t say we won’t go into another lockdown after this one. And given the fact the hse management seem to have done nothing except allow the waiting list balloon and get themselves a pay rise, any extra surge from even a few covid cases over the winter months makes this likely since they now have a great excuse to cover up they barely cope any winter before covid hit. So this means a lot of small businesses and retail included as well may only have a small window to open and make some much needed money, meanwhile north will be full steam ahead open end of May.

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    Mute Siobhan Rosemary
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    Apr 17th 2021, 8:35 AM

    So the AstraZeneca isnt safe to use on under 60s but is safe for under 60s who received 1st dose?? Think il pass on the second thanks. Back of the que I go lol

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 18th 2021, 5:34 AM

    @Siobhan Rosemary: that silly. 1 in a million died of a blood clot that nobody knew to be looking for. That’s different now. 12 in a million died of covid here and doctors were definitely looking for it.

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    Mute K Flan
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    Apr 17th 2021, 11:26 AM

    2 more weeks to flatten the curve

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Apr 18th 2021, 5:35 AM

    @K Flan: the curve is flattened. Sadly the base rate is still over 300 cases per day.

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    Mute Sean Callan
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    Apr 17th 2021, 7:26 AM

    Boring boring boring all this lot has to offer

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