Rare Suu Kyi phone call to son signals shift in Myanmar junta strategy

The son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi said she sounded “fairly healthy” after speaking to the detained ex-democratic leader on Thursday for the first time in more than five years.

Suu Kyi, 81, is under house arrest in the capital, Naypyidaw, according to Myanmar authorities, where she has been sequestered since being unseated in a 2021 military coup.

“She was sounding fairly healthy,” Kim Aris, who lives in the UK, said after the telephone conversation. It was the first time he had spoken to his mother in more than five years, he said. “She was able to say she was in good health, but being 81, things aren’t getting any better.”

News of the conversation was the second rare update on Suu Kyi this week, after Myanmar authorities on Monday published pictures of her receiving a package sent by Britain’s King Charles III. Analysts say Myanmar’s rulers are increasingly advertising Suu Kyi’s well-being and her contacts with the outside world, as they bid to shake off their post-coup pariah status abroad.

“Essentially we just discussed family matters,” Aris said, adding: “We knew the phone call would be recorded, so we didn’t talk about anything sensitive.”

Myanmar’s presidential spokeswoman released photographs of Suu Kyi and Aris speaking into telephones, the detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate sitting under a calendar marked with Thursday’s date. A statement said the pair had a “consular telephone conversation” for 20 minutes starting at 2.30pm, and that Aris had taken the call from Myanmar’s embassy in London.

“She was most concerned about my health and the rest of the family: that was her first question, if I was well,” Aris said. “I remain very concerned about her well-being.”

Posting about the call on social media, Aris wrote: “Hearing her voice again means more than words can express.” He said Suu Kyi had been “unjustly detained,” and urged her supporters to “keep speaking up until she is free”.

“My mother and all political prisoners must be released immediately and unconditionally. Freedom is not negotiable,” he wrote. Kim is one of two sons whom Suu Kyi had with her late husband, British academic Michael Aris.

Seeking legitimacy

Myanmar’s military held Suu Kyi in almost total seclusion for five years following the February 2021 coup, which ended a tentative decade-long experiment with democracy. But in recent months authorities say they have loosened her detention and have published photographs of her taking private meetings, as supporters have demanded “proof of life”.

Analysts say Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing – who as military chief ousted Suu Kyi in February 2021 – is seeking international legitimacy after being installed as the country’s civilian president in April.

Despite criticism from democracy watchdogs that the election putting him in office was a charade, he has made significant headway into being welcomed onto the world stage. He has been invited on numerous diplomatic trips including to members from the Asean bloc – where Suu Kyi’s status has long been a sticking point.

Morgan Michaels, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said authorities were “using” Suu Kyi “to extract concessions from members of the international community”. “But many within Asean and beyond want to see her release. These types of gestures are likely to be very well received even if they are insincere or tactical in nature.”

One Yangon office worker, speaking anonymously for security reasons, said she still feared for Suu Kyi. “She is getting older, and I just hope she can be free, healthy and with her family,” the 30-year-old said. “But these new contacts give me some hope.”

The coup ousting Suu Kyi also triggered a civil war in Myanmar, where she won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent campaign for democracy.

Analysts have said reintroducing the pacifist Suu Kyi into politics may be a canny way to peel off support for pro-democracy rebels who rose up to challenge the military after the putsch.

A former senior member of Suu Kyi’s now-dissolved National League for Democracy party said she was “not a hardliner” and would likely engage with Min Aung Hlaing if released. “We have only one way and that is dialogue,” the member said on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “For the sake of the people and the country, they have to meet.”

Myanmar authorities said Suu Kyi was moved from a prison in Naypyidaw to house arrest in April, and in August they published images of her meeting the nation’s Red Cross representative.

On Monday, authorities in Myanmar said she received a package from King Charles, including two books about soil and a “sealed diplomatic communication” from the monarch. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the announcement about the package.