Nobel Peace Prize winner and de facto leader of the state formerly known as Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi has been accused of failing to act on the alleged ‘ethnic cleansing’ being carried out in the country. More than 400,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya people, who live in the Rakhine State on the country’s west coast, have been forced from their homes. Thousands are suspected to have been killed and the Myanmar military has been accused of burning whole villages.
Aung San Suu Kyi was the ‘original inspiration’ for the Jersey-based charity the Rangoon General Hospital Reinvigoration Charitable Trust. She has come under fire for her perceived lack of action on the troubles.
The Trust, which was founded in 2014, is working to ‘reinvigorate’ the Rangoon General Hospital. It was due to celebrate its third birthday next Saturday at St Ouen’s Manor. However, trustee Michael Marett-Crosby, who claims on the charity’s website to work for Aung San Suu Kyi, has sent a letter to supporters saying that the event has been cancelled because key members of the charity may not be in the Island, as they were ‘fully engaged’ on the current situation in Myanmar.
He also wrote: ‘Our small team is working hard to find the best ways to respond. We are likely to be playing a key role in delivering the help that will archive a sustainable future for all communities in the Rakhine State.’
Speaking to the JEP, Mr Marett-Crosby stressed that ‘the charity had no formal relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi and she is not trustee or patron’.
He added: ‘When we set up in 2014 she was leader of the opposition. When she won the election in 2015, we had to look again at our relationship with her and we now liaise with our Burmese colleagues through the Ministry of Health in Burma.’
On the RGHRCT website, there are still several references to Aung San Suu Kyi as well as quotes from her speaking about the charity’s work. In 2015, supporters of the RGHRCT were invited to an event at Ogier where she delivered a message via video about the charity’s Medical Education project.
Pressed on the charity’s relationship with the leader, who many people have said should be stripped of her Nobel prize, Mr Marret-Crosby said: ‘She was the inspiration behind the charity and set its original tasks. She asked me to found the charity. We are proud of that. I have not [spoken to her about her response to the crisis in the country]. I am not a politician. It is a dreadfully distressing situation.’
He added that references to the leader on the charity’s website would remain.
Mr Marett-Crosby also said: ‘My job now, in this humanitarian emergency, is to try to save lives and build a safe future in the Rakhine State. That is what Kofi Annan [former Secretary General of the UN] has asked for.’
