U2 says Suu Kyi must break silence on Rohingya

Bono and Adam Clayton of Irish rock band U2 perform in Trafalgar Square in central London on Saturday. (AFP)

LONDON: Irish rockers U2 said Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi must speak out against violence that is driving the exodus of the Rohingya minority.
More than 600,000 members of the Muslim minority have fled to Bangladesh since August, when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts, and security forces responded with a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages.
In a statement Saturday, the band said that “for these atrocities against the Rohingya people to be happening on her watch blows our minds and breaks our hearts.”
It said Suu Kyi’s silence “is starting to look a lot like assent.”
U2 also aimed criticism at the leader of Myanmar’s military, Min Aung Hlaing. The band campaigned for Suu Kyi’s release when she was detained for years by Myanmar’s military rulers.
On Saturday, U2 performed in London’s Trafalgar Square on the eve of the MTV Europe Music Awards, with a politically charged set from frontman Bono. The group played a mixture of new material and classic tracks such as “Beautiful Day,” ahead of Sunday’s awards ceremony where U2 picked up the “Global Icon” gong celebrating more than 40 years in the music industry.
Singer Bono wove current affairs and activism into the concert, urging fans to hold up placards they had brought to the square.
“Protesting in the end works — it gets things done, slowly but surely,” he told the crowds, who had won free tickets in a ballot organized by MTV.
Words from the US rights campaigner Martin Luther King were shown on a large screen, while Bono also talked about gender equality.
The band played tribute to the victims of May’s suicide bomb attack at a Manchester concert venue, displaying the names of the 22 people who were killed.