Aung San Suu Kyi's Son Fears for Mother's Life After Two Years Without Contact Under Myanmar's Military Regime

Aung San Suu Kyi is currently serving a 27-year sentence for various charges including incitement, corruption, and election fraud, all of which she maintains her innocence.

With deteriorating health and complete isolation surrounding Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her son Kim Aris fears the worst—he might not even know if she has passed away.

In a recent interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Aris revealed he hasn't received any direct communication from his 80-year-old mother in years. He has only obtained occasional secondhand information about her worsening health conditions, including heart, bone, and gum issues, since the military coup overthrew her government in 2021.

While he strongly opposes the Myanmar junta's planned elections this month—widely condemned by international governments as illegitimate attempts to normalize military rule—Aris acknowledges these elections might provide a potential opportunity to improve his mother's dire situation.

"She's experiencing ongoing health problems. No one has seen her for more than two years. She's been denied contact with her legal representatives, let alone family members," he stated during the interview. "For all I know, she could already be deceased."

"I suspect Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has his own strategic plans regarding my mother. If he intends to use her to placate the general population either before or after the elections by releasing her or transferring her to house arrest, that would at least be something positive," he added.

Requests for comment from Myanmar junta spokespersons went unanswered.

Myanmar's military has previously released prisoners to commemorate significant events or holidays.

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 shortly after an election, ending a previous extended period of detention primarily spent at her family's colonial-era residence on Yangon's Inya Lake.

She subsequently became Myanmar's de-facto leader following elections in 2015, the first openly contested vote in twenty-five years. However, her international reputation later suffered due to allegations of genocide against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.

Myanmar has been in a state of upheaval since the 2021 coup, which sparked an armed resistance that has seized considerable territory throughout the country.

Aris believes his mother is being detained in the capital Naypyitaw. In the final letter he received from her two years ago, she described suffering through extreme temperature fluctuations in her cell during summer and winter months.

With multiple conflicts erupting globally, Aris worries that international attention is shifting away from Myanmar's situation.

He's attempting to leverage the upcoming elections—the first since the coup, scheduled to begin December 28—to urge foreign governments, including Japan, to apply greater pressure on the junta and advocate for his mother's release.

"Due to the upcoming elections that the military is attempting to organize, which everyone recognizes as completely unfair and far from free—something that would be laughable if it weren't so tragic—I need to utilize this brief window of opportunity," he explained.

"Previously, when my mother was held in higher esteem by the international community, it was much more difficult for people to ignore events in Burma. But since her position was undermined through the Rakhine crisis, that's no longer the case," he added, referring to the country by its former name.

Aris, a British citizen who maintained a low profile until recently, insists his mother was "not complicit" in what the United Nations described as a genocidal campaign conducted by the military against the Rohingya in Rakhine state during 2016-2017.

While serving as de-facto leader, Myanmar's constitution restricted Suu Kyi's authority over the military. At an international tribunal in The Hague in 2020, she acknowledged that war crimes may have occurred but denied genocide had taken place.

During his visit to Japan, Aris met with various Japanese politicians and government officials to urge them to adopt a stronger position against the junta and reject the upcoming elections.

When asked what his mother would think about his advocacy efforts, he responded: "I believe she would be incredibly saddened that I've had to do this. She always wanted me to avoid getting involved. But currently, I don't really have a choice. I am her son after all. And if I'm not doing it, I can't expect anyone else to."