Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi moved from prison to house arrest, state media says
Grant Peck
Bangkok: Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest, state television announced on Thursday night.
Myanmar’s military information office confirmed the news in a text message to the press. The announcement was accompanied by a photo of the 80-year-old leader, dressed in a traditional white blouse and skirt, sitting face to face with two unidentified men in uniform.
The photo was also shown on the TV broadcast, but it is not clear when and where it was taken. His son, Kim Aris, said the announcement did little to allay fears about his condition or even confirm that he was still alive.
“I still don’t know where my mother is. I don’t know how she is. I’m deeply concerned about whether she’s still alive,” he said. “If he’s alive, I want proof that he’s alive.”
Aris told Reuters in December that he had not heard from his mother in years since her detention after a military coup in 2021 and had received only sporadic, secondhand information about her health problems, including heart, bone and gum problems. His legal team told Reuters there had been no direct notification of his transfer to house arrest.
Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since Myanmar’s military seized control of her elected government on February 1, 2021. The last official photo of him in court was published on May 24, 2021.
The military takeover in 2021 triggered massive popular resistance that was brutally suppressed, triggering a bloody civil war that killed thousands of people.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights watchdog organization, 22,047 people have been detained for political reasons since the military came to power.
Suu Kyi was first sentenced to 33 years in prison in late 2022 for a variety of crimes that her supporters and human rights groups described as attempts to discredit her, legitimize a takeover by the military that ousted her and block her return to politics.
By calculation, Thursday’s pardon, the second granted to him in recent weeks, will reduce his sentence to 18 years, leaving him with more than 13 years left.
Authorities had announced that his prison sentence would be reduced as part of a prisoner amnesty implemented on the occasion of the Buddhist religious holiday “Kason” Full Moon day, known as the Birthday and Death of Buddha. It includes 1,519 prisoners, 11 of whom are foreigners, and the sentences of the convicts who remain in prison are reduced by one sixth.
Announcing the transfer, Myanmar’s military leadership said he was transferred from the main prison in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, to house arrest “to celebrate Buddha Day, show humanitarian concern and demonstrate the kindness of the state.”
It was not stated exactly where he was being held, but it was stated that, according to the law regarding the determination of prison location, “he will now serve the remainder of his sentence in a certain house instead of prison.”
The pardons came after veteran general Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as president on April 10, following an election that critics described as neither free nor fair and planned to maintain the military’s tight grip on power.
In his opening speech, he said his government would issue amnesties aimed at promoting social reconciliation, justice and peace. The actions, including the pardons and Suu Kyi’s transfer, are widely seen as an effort to burnish her image.
US Secretary of State António Guterres said the move represented “a meaningful step towards conditions conducive to a credible political process.”
Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN chief reiterated his call for the rapid release of all political prisoners, stressing that this was a “fundamental step” towards a political process and solution that “must be based on an immediate cessation of violence and a genuine commitment to inclusive dialogue”.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s martyred independence hero General Aung San, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest between 1989 and 2010.
His tough stance against military rule in Myanmar made him a symbol of the non-violent struggle for democracy and earned him the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
AP, Reuters
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