Oxford College removes Suu Kyi's portrait

Oxford College has removed the portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi where she studied as an undergraduate and was awarded an honorary degree. Her portrait was removed amid criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis. The fresh spell of violence in Rakhine state displaced more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the United Nations. St Hugh's College said her portrait had been replaced with a painting by a Japanese artist Yoshihiro Takada. The reasons for the portrait's removal are not clear the college has been contacted for a comment, reports the BBC. Communications manager Benjamin Jones said the portrait had been moved to a "secure location" while Takada's piece was to be displayed "for a period". The new painting is currently displayed in the entrance of the college’s main building which was presented to the college earlier this month. Suu Kyi , the Nobel Prize winner who won 2015 election and became Myanmar's de facto civilian leader, was a former political prisoner who has been since winning elections in 2015. She is coming under growing international pressure to act and has been criticised for failing to address UN allegations of ethnic cleansing. Suu Kyi, condemned human rights abuses against the Rohingya in a speech last week, but she did not blame the army or address allegations of ethnic cleansing. She graduated from St Hugh's College in 1967 and was awarded an honorary degree in June 2012, which the university said it was not considering removing. Founded in 1886, St Hugh's is one of the largest colleges at the university with about 800 students.