In this photo released by the Myanmar government on Thursday, deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks on the phone with her son Kim Aris in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.
Office of the Spokesperson of the President of Myanmar via AP
hide caption
Office of the Spokesperson of the President of Myanmar via AP
CHIANG MAI, Thailand — After nearly six years in detention, Aung San Suu Kyi’s first words to her son were a question about his health.
“And then I said the whole family is sending love and asking about his health,” said Kim Aris, who spoke by phone with her 81-year-old mother on Thursday, their first direct conversation since the 2021 military coup that toppled Myanmar’s democratically elected government she led.
The 20-minute call, which Aris said was monitored by the military, offered a rare glimpse into how the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner is being held. She was first convicted in 2021, with consecutive trials through 2022 bringing her total sentence to 33 years on charges of corruption and election fraud, widely condemned by the United States, Western countries and human rights groups as fabricated. The sentence was later reduced, leaving him with another 18 years to serve.
Little is known about its condition since the coup, which sparked a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event data, a conflict monitoring organization. The UN says the conflict has displaced millions of people.
In this photo released Thursday by the Myanmar government, Kim Aris, son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, speaks on the phone with his mother at the Myanmar embassy in London.
Office of the Spokesperson of the President of Myanmar via AP
hide caption
Office of the Spokesperson of the President of Myanmar via AP
“My mother is alive and well,” said Aris, a 49-year-old carpenter, who campaigned for her release and sought to raise awareness of the crisis ravaging the Southeast Asian country. He described the call to NPR in a telephone interview from London, where he lives. “Hearing his voice reassured me.”
Khaing Khaing Soe, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s military-backed president, said on social media that Aris spoke by phone with Suu Kyi through the Myanmar embassy in London and shared separate photographs of the two.
So far, Aris said he has received almost no news from her – just a single censored letter from three years ago and occasional snippets of second-hand information. Through the call, he said he learned she was being held at “a residence” somewhere around Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw. He also said he believed police and military personnel were surrounding the building, which is “fenced, with a brushy, nondescript backyard that I believe she is allowed to go out into.”
“From what I can verify, she’s basically being held in solitary confinement even though she’s not in a jail cell,” Aris said.
She was allowed to read books, he said, adding: “I don’t think she gets any news. So no radio, no television, no newspapers.”
His health has long been a concern for the family. Even though she “looked strong,” Aris said, “she’s still in a lot of pain because her hand is playing.” She told him she had tendonitis. “She said it was very painful and at times she couldn’t even use her hand.” She also said she has a health check-up every six months.
He believes that the food is prepared at the residence and sometimes delivered by his lawyers, but not directly on site. Aris said he was hoping to send her some care packages and she had one request.
She would like “healthy food and good food – kind of a treat,” he said. “She would like it half and half so it wasn’t too much either.”
Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her son Kim Aris pose for a photo at Bagan airport before leaving for Yangon, Myanmar, July 8, 2011.
Khin Maung wins/AP
hide caption
Khin Maung wins/AP
Aris said she plans to include Ben’s Cookies, a brand founded in Oxford, England, where she raised her two sons with her late husband, British academic Michael Aris, before moving to Burma, now Myanmar, in 1988 to care for her ailing mother.
“And a little chocolate wouldn’t hurt,” he added.
Because the conversation was likely being monitored by Myanmar security forces, he said, “there is nothing we can talk about that is too sensitive,” including Myanmar’s civil war.
“We’ve had to deal with this for so many years on and off that we know pretty well how it works,” he said, recalling his years under house arrest in his family’s Yangon home between 1989 and 2010. The regime at the time photographed packages sent to him and “used that as propaganda,” he said.
A spokesman for the military-backed government did not respond to a request for comment.
Kim Aris believes Myanmar’s generals are feeling international pressure as coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, who was installed as president after military-organized elections in January, goes abroad seeking legitimacy.
“It shows that the military wants to present a better image of itself, while actually giving very little,” he said. “I hope governments around the world will not be fooled. After all, they have been using these same tactics for decades, and it has been proven time and time again that it achieves nothing.”
For all he knows, this call could be a one-off. He said his mother’s situation “highlights what is happening in Burma and reminds people that this is happening to many others – and much worse.”
“She believes she’s giving strength to the people of Burma by being there with them, going through what they’re going through,” Aris said.
Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing remains under US sanctions for human rights violations, including the 2016-2017 massacres and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims that Washington declared a genocide.
Based on her interviews and social media posts, Suu Kyi remains a beloved figure to many people in Myanmar, although her international reputation took a hit in 2019, when she appeared before the International Court of Justice to defend the country against allegations of genocide.
Since Min Aung Hlaing became president, the military has sharply intensified its attacks on civilians, according to ACLED, even as regional governments step up their diplomatic engagement.
One opposition figure, Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the national unity government in exile, told NPR in a recent interview that he believes the regime “does not dare to release” Suu Kyi.
“If she is released, her strength will combine with the revolution – this is what Min Aung Hlaing fears,” he added.
Richard Horsey, senior Asia adviser at the NGO International Crisis Group, said Suu Kyi’s status is “potentially the most valuable card Min Aung Hlaing has, but he is very reluctant to play it.”
“The risk is that Aung San Suu Kyi becomes a bargaining chip, exchanged for concessions as airstrikes on civilian targets continue,” Horsey said. “His release is very unlikely. And while it would mean a lot to his family and many people in Myanmar, it would not end the war.”
The State Department said the United States remains concerned about the fate of all those it considers unjustly detained and continues to call for their release. He also urged the army to engage in “genuine dialogue with all opposition groups” to end the conflict.
In August, the ministry’s East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau said in an online statement that it continued to call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Suu Kyi.
Gn world
