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Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be moved to house arrest, military-controlled media reported on Thursday, more than five years after her government was ousted in a coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, has been detained since the military took power in 2021, plunging the country into conflict and economic turmoil. Very little is known about the conditions in which she has been held.
Military-run MRTV reported on Thursday that “the remaining portion of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence has been commuted to be served at a designated residence,” using an honorific for the veteran politician. The exact location was not specified.
Her son Kim Aris wrote on social media that his mother remained a “hostage, cut off from the world”, and asked for verified information that his mother was alive as well as “the ability to communicate with her, and to see her free”.
A photograph of the detained former leader, dressed in a white blouse and skirt, sitting on a wooden bench alongside two uniformed personnel, was shown on military-controlled TV. It is the first public image of her in years, however Kim Aris told the BBC the image was taken years ago.
At the United Nations in New York, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric welcomed “the commutation of Aung San Suu Kyi to a so-called house arrest in a designated residence”, describing it is as “a meaningful step towards conditions conducive to credible political process.”
Dujarric added that the only viable political solution in Myanmar “must be based on immediate cessation of violence and a genuine commitment to inclusive dialogue”.
Campaigners accused Myanmar’s military leaders of a cynical PR campaign designed to gain international legitimacy, and of continuing its oppressive rule. “They use political prisoners who should never have been in jail in the first place as public relations pawns,” said Burma Campaign UK in a statement. “At the same time, the Burmese military are stepping up airstrikes targeting health facilities and civilians.”
Min Aung Hlaing, the military general who led the 2021 coup was appointed president last month, following elections that were widely condemned as a sham designed to give a veneer of legitimacy to army rule.
Conflict has continued to rage in the months since. In March, more than 450 people were killed in air and drone strikes, the highest monthly death toll since the resistance to the 2021 coup began, according to Acled, which monitors conflicts globally.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence was also reduced by a one-sixth on Thursday as part of a wider amnesty of all prisoners in Myanmar’s jails. This would bring her sentence down to 18 years, with more than 13 years left to serve.
She was originally sentenced to 33 years after various charges including treason and corruption to violations of the telecommunications law, cases that were widely condemned as politically motivated. However the sentence was later commuted to 27 years, and then reduced by a sixth earlier this month.
The latest announcement was made as part of a prisoner amnesty marking a Buddhist religious holiday.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the former Burma’s independence hero Gen Aung San, was previously held under house arrest for a total of 15 years under a past junta, becoming one of the world’s most famous political prisoners. She was then held at her family residence on Yangon’s Inya Lake, where she famously gave impassioned speeches to crowds of supporters over the metal gates of the property.
Since her arrest in 2021, however, information about her condition has been very limited. Her son Kim Aris has repeatedly warned of her deteriorating health.
“I still do not know where my mother is. I do not know how she is. I remain deeply concerned about whether she is still alive,” he told Reuters. “If she is alive, I ask for proof of life.”
Lawyers acting for Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday told Agence France-Presse that the former leader “has lived through hell in the Burmese prisons for over five years”.
“We welcome the evolution of her situation while stressing that she remains wrongly deprived of liberty,” Francois Zimeray and Catalina de la Sota said.
Myanmar’s junta chief turned president Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew Suu Kyi in the coup, has faced persistent international pressure to release political detainees since the recent election, including from the south-east Asian bloc Asean, which he is seeking to re-engage with after being barred from its summits.
Min Aung Hlaing last week told Thailand’s foreign minister she was being “well looked after” and his government was considering unspecified “good things”.
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