Isolation: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Speaks With Son After Five Years
The Nobel laureate's son says he spoke to his 81-year-old mother by phone at the Myanmar embassy in London, describing her as mentally sharp but cut off from news and visitors.
By Hiroshi Ferrari ·
Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spoken with her son for the first time in more than five years, according to him.
Kim Aris, who lives in Britain and is the son of the late British historian Michael Aris, said he spoke with his 81-year-old mother by telephone on October 22 while at Myanmar's embassy in London. "She still sounds certainly all there mentally, and physically she sounds strong," he said.
Aris said he believes his mother has no contact with anyone other than military or police personnel. He described her condition as solitary confinement and said she remains at a location in Naypyidaw, the capital. He believes it is a fenced residence surrounded by scrubby land, but said he does not know the address.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the daughter of independence hero Gen Aung San, was removed from power in the military coup of February 2021. She has been held since then on charges that her son described as "trumped-up, politically motivated" and that he said should result in her release.
Aris said the invitation to speak with her came as part of a public relations effort by Myanmar's military leaders. Former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has been seeking to rebuild diplomatic ties since April, when he appeared in civilian clothes following elections that were widely condemned as a sham.
Activists have called for proof of life for Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. She was photographed during a Red Cross visit in August. Government images released last week showed her in a wood-panelled room holding two gardening books sent by Britain's King Charles; a calendar on the wall behind her displayed the date.
Aris called such displays a technique the regime has used before to show that his mother is treated fairly. He said she has no access to newspapers, radio or television. "She remains completely shut off from the rest of the world," he said.
Suu Kyi led pro-democracy campaigns and spent much of the period since the late 1980s under house arrest. She contested a 2015 election that her party won by a wide margin and became state counsellor under a civilian-military arrangement. Her standing abroad declined after the mass killings and expulsions of Rohingya Muslims in 2016 and 2017. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, she acknowledged that military units might have used "disproportionate force" while defending the government against genocide accusations.
Aris said his mother was never silent on the Rohingya crisis and that her remarks "could fill volumes". He noted that under her leadership Myanmar began a domestic inquiry and appointed former UN chief Kofi Annan to lead a commission. He also said she was "always walking on a tightrope" as state counsellor because the military could remove her power at any time and worked to weaken her position.
The 2021 takeover set off a civil war that conflict monitors say has killed more than 100,000 people. Aris said international support for his mother had "dwindled incredibly" since the Rohingya crisis. He said global attention to Myanmar had dropped and that the country's former name, Burma, should not determine whether its people are heard: "The fact that people ignore what's happening in Burma shouldn't be down to what was being done to the Rohingya."
