Concerns about the well-being of Aung San Suu Kyi persist more than two weeks after she was placed under house arrest, with her son calling on Myanmar’s new government to “show proof of life.”
Son’s Appeal
On 30 April, state media released a photograph of Ms Suu Kyi seated on a wooden bench, speaking with two unidentified uniformed officials. However, the authenticity of that image has been questioned. On Monday, the former leader’s son, Kim Aris, reiterated his demand for authorities to demonstrate that she is still alive.
Ms Suu Kyi was arrested in February 2021 when the army seized power from her elected government in a coup. She has not been seen publicly since, and her last official photo was from a court appearance in May of that year. “Today, I joined supporters in front of the UK parliament to speak for my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and all political prisoners in Burma,” Mr Aris, 48, wrote on Facebook. “More than five years after the coup, there is still no credible, independently verified proof that my mother is alive.”
“Moving my mother, an 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from one secret place to another is not freedom. She remains a hostage,” he added. “Show proof of life.”
Demand for Answers
Mr Aris also shared a video showing him standing with supporters and demanding to know his mother’s whereabouts. “We have gathered here for a simple, urgent and a deeply human reason,” he could be heard saying. “We demand to know if my mother Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is still alive.”
When authorities announced Ms Suu Kyi had been moved from her secret prison to house arrest, he said, “they expected the world to look away.” “Since then we have repeatedly asked, where she is, how she is and whether she is okay,” Mr Aris said.
Transfer and Amnesty
Ms Suu Kyi was moved from prison to house arrest after her sentence was reduced as part of a broad prisoner amnesty for a Buddhist holiday. “She will now serve the remainder of her sentence at a specific home instead of in prison,” authorities said, without disclosing the exact location. The amnesty freed over 1,500 prisoners and reduced the prison terms of many more by up to a sixth. Prisoner amnesties are common in Myanmar for religious holidays and other important days.
A separate amnesty announced earlier last month freed former president Win Myint, a longtime loyalist of Ms Suu Kyi who had been arrested the same day as her. The amnesties came after Min Aung Hlaing, the military general who led the 2021 coup, was sworn in as president on 10 April following an election that put a new civilian government in office but which critics said was orchestrated to maintain the military’s tight grip on power.
In his inauguration speech, the president said his government would grant amnesty to prisoners in an effort to promote social reconciliation, justice and peace. Ms Suu Kyi was initially sentenced to 33 years in jail in 2022 on a range of charges that her supporters and rights groups described as attempts to legitimise the army’s takeover and to prevent her return to politics.
UN Secretary General António Guterres considered Ms Suu Kyi’s transfer “a meaningful step towards conditions conducive to a credible political process,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said earlier.
