Aung San Suu Kyi has spoken directly with her son for the first time since Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021. Kim Aris, who for years had only received sporadic, second hand updates about his 81 year old mother, spoke with her by telephone on Thursday through Myanmar’s embassy in London, in a call of about 20 minutes. A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military backed president announced the call on social media, sharing separate photographs of the pair.
Hearing her voice again means more to me than words can express, Aris said in a statement. He told AFP his mother sounded fairly healthy, though, being 81, things are not getting any better, and other accounts of his remarks describe continuing pain from tendonitis in her hand. They discussed family matters, knowing the call would be recorded, and her first question, he said, was whether he was well. He believes she is being held at a residence near the capital, Naypyidaw, surrounded by police and military personnel, with a fenced garden she may occasionally use.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was detained in the early morning raids of February 2021 that ousted her elected government. The coup sparked nationwide protests that evolved into an armed resistance movement and a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people and displaced millions, on the Reuters account. She was moved to house arrest in April, following a military engineered election that installed coup leader Min Aung Hlaing as president, and is serving an 18 year prison sentence on charges ranging from incitement and corruption to election fraud and violating a state secrets law, all of which she denies. In August she met a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a visit Aris described at the time as a positive sign.
Aris was clear that one call changes little by itself. She remains unjustly detained and a single conversation cannot restore the years taken from her or the rights she is still denied, he said. Regular, direct and private family contact and independent medical access must be guaranteed. Burma Campaign UK, on the same day, accused the British government of incrementally softening its approach towards the military regime, arguing that gestures such as delivering books to Suu Kyi via the Myanmar authorities hand the regime a propaganda opportunity. Whether the call becomes a channel, with regular contact and independent medical access, or remains a single publicised gesture is the test for the weeks ahead.