Dundee City Council is likely to strip embattled Myanmar civic leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the freedom of the city.
Ms Suu Kyi received the accolade in 2008, following years of persecution as a leader in Myanmar’s (formally Burma) democracy movement.
However, following recent atrocities committed by Myanmar government troops on the Rohingya people, her position as a beacon for democracy around the world is being questioned.
Dundee councillors last year instructed Lord Provost Ian Borthwick to write to Ms Suu Kyi, calling on an end to the violence in the region.
They warned if not, then the title bestowed on her a decade ago would be stripped, following similar moves by local authorities in Glasgow and Dublin.
If the council follows through with its threat, it would be the first time in the city’s 827 year history.
Strathmartine SNP representative Councillor Stewart Hunter, who brought the motion to the council last year, said the response received by the council from the Myanmar government was completely unsatisfactory.
He said: “We received replies from the Myanmar government but they failed to address many of the concerns we raised and were very vague about the situation in the country.
“In my view, the response does not meet what we were looking for.
“I have spoken to administration leader Councillor John Alexander, who will in turn speak to the Lord Provost and the leaders of the other political groups in the city with the idea being we bring this issue back before the council.
“This is a civic matter and I believe there will be a free vote, allowing members to vote with their conscience, rather than along party lines.
“The aim is to bring this matter before the council at the next available opportunity.
“It is important for us as a council to take this stand, we have to stand by our values.
“Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the freedom of the city because we felt there was a shared belief in democracy and freedom, but persecuting people because of their race or religion goes against these values.
“It is important for us, as a city, to show our principles and values and what they mean to us.”
Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been heavily criticised for her refusal to condemn, or even acknowledge, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar carried out by government troops.
She is currently state counsellor, akin to the UK prime minister, of the south east Asian country which has a population of more than 52 million people.
Nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee across the border into Bangladesh because of the military offensive against them, which began at the end of August.
Amnesty Intentional has said more people have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in three weeks than the number of refugees who attempted to reach Europe by boat in 2016.
The United Nations has described the situation in the country as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
