Mother and Son Connect: Suu Kyi Reports Hand Pain and Solitary Conditions
Aung San Suu Kyi told her son she has 18 years left on her sentence and is surrounded by security at a residence near Naypyidaw.
By Thiago Kovalenko ·
Kim Aris, a 49-year-old carpenter living in London, spoke with his mother, former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on Thursday in a 20-minute phone call. It was their first direct conversation since the military seized power in 2021 and toppled the government she led. "My mother is actually alive and well," Aris told NPR, adding that hearing her voice reassured him.
The call was arranged through Myanmar's Embassy in London, according to Khaing Khaing Soe, a spokesperson for the military-backed president, who posted photographs of the two on social media. Aris said the first thing she asked was about his health. He passed along the family's love and asked about hers. He said the conversation was monitored, so they did not discuss the civil war or other sensitive topics.
Aris, 81-year-old Suu Kyi's son, learned she is held at a residence around the capital, Naypyidaw, with police and military personnel around the building. He described the property as fenced off with a scrubby garden. "From what I can ascertain, she's basically being held in solitary confinement even if she's not in a prison cell," he said. She can read books but does not appear to have news from radio, television or newspapers.
She was sentenced in 2021 and through consecutive trials in 2022 to a combined 33 years on corruption and electoral fraud charges, penalties the U.S., Western countries and human rights groups have called fabricated. The term was reduced, and she has 18 years left to serve. Aris said she sounded strong but has considerable pain from tendonitis in her hand, which she sometimes cannot use, and she receives a health checkup every six months.
Aris said she is surrounded by security at the residence near Naypyidaw, and he believes the military monitored the call. He recalled that during her house arrest in Yangon from 1989 to 2010, the regime photographed parcels sent to her and used them as propaganda. He described the call as an image effort by the military as coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, installed as president after a military-engineered election in January, travels abroad seeking legitimacy. "I hope that governments around the world won't be taken in," he said.
The 2021 coup set off a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people, according to ACLED, and the U.N. says millions have been displaced. Min Aung Hlaing remains under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, including the 2016-2017 killings and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, which Washington has declared a genocide. The U.S. State Department said it remains concerned about everyone it considers unjustly detained and urged the military to hold genuine dialogue with all opposition groups; its Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs called in August for her immediate and unconditional release.
