Son of Aung San Suu Kyi says he had first call with his mother in five years

The son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday said he spoke to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years.

“Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris wrote on Facebook.

Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest in the capital, Naypyidaw, Burmese authorities say, where she has been sequestered since being unseated in a 2021 military coup.

Kim Aris, son of Aung San Suu Kyi, speaks to supporters in London on June 19 last year before taking part in a run on his mother’s 80th birthday to raise awareness of her incarceration.

Photo: AFP

Agence France-Presse could not immediately reach Aris — who lives in the UK — and it was not clear how he spoke to his mother, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar.

However, he posted images accompanying his Facebook post that appeared to show him standing outside the Burmese embassy in London.

“I am deeply grateful to everyone who has stood by my mother and me. I believe your voices helped make this moment possible,” Aris wrote. “But my mother is 81 and remains unjustly detained. One conversation is not regular family access.”

The Burmese military held Aung San Suu Kyi in almost total seclusion for five years following the February 2021 coup, which ended a tentative decade-long experiment with democracy.

However, in the past few months authorities have increasingly advertised the loosening of her detention and published photographs of her taking private meetings, as supporters have demanded “proof of life” of the octogenarian.

Authorities on Monday said she received a package from King Charles III, including two books about soil and a “sealed diplomatic communication” from the monarch.

Buckingham Palace did not comment on the contents of the communication.

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

After ruling Myanmar as military chief for five years, Min Aung Hlaing — who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi in the 2021 coup — was earlier this year installed as civilian president.

Analysts describe the election putting him in elected office as a charade, and say he might be loosening restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to court international legitimacy.