Aung San Suu Kyi has now spent a total of 20 years in detention in Myanmar, a grim milestone reached this week. Her son Kim Aris said his mother remains in prison in total isolation, 'buried alive in a system devoid of transparency and justice'. He called for her release as a first step towards peace.
Suu Kyi first entered politics in 1988 after witnessing the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests by the military. She was arrested a year later and placed under house arrest. During that first detention she became a global symbol of peaceful resistance and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Despite her isolation, her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election, which the military refused to honour. She was released in 1995 but faced further arrests: in 2000 and again in 2003 after an attack on her convoy. The latter confinement lasted more than seven years, including an extension after an American man swam to her home.
Her most recent detention began in February 2021 when the military overthrew her democratically elected government in a coup. She has not been heard from in public since. The same generals are now holding elections analysts say are designed to cement military rule.
Suu Kyi's global standing suffered severe damage after the 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya. She defended the military at the International Court of Justice in 2019, arguing the allegations were based on an incomplete picture. This week the ICJ convened to hear the genocide case brought by The Gambia.
