AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP STRIPPED

MYANMAR'S Leader Aung San Suu Kyi became the first person to be stripped of honorary Canadian citizenship on Tuesday over her refusal to call out atrocities by her nation's military against The Rohingya Muslim minority.

The move was made official after Canada's Senate  voted to revoke the symbolic honor.

The lower house has already approved a motion to the same effect last week.

The  House of Commons  granted the privilege to Suu Kyi in 2007, but her international reputation has since been tarnished by her refusal to call on the  Burmese army to put an end to the atrocities committed against the Rohingya.

Canadian   lawmakers   described the violence against them as a  ''genocide''  in a resolution passed in September.

 The ethnic groups are treated as foreigners  in Burma, a country that is more than  90 percent Buddhist.

A brutal military campaign that started last year drove more than  700,000      Rohingya Muslims  from Myanmar   into    neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in cramped refugee camps   -fearful of returning despite a repatriation deal.

Many have given accounts of  extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arson.

Canada has granted honorary citizenship only  to five other  personalities. including Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Malala Yusafzai. [Agencies]