‘No way of verifying if she’s even alive’: Myanmar’s Suu Kyi suffers heart problems in military custody, son appeals for release

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Myanmar protesters at a rally to mark the second anniversary of Myanmar's 2021 military coup, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Tokyo February 1, 2023. — Reuters pic

YANGON, Sept 5 — Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from worsening heart problems and needs urgent medical attention, her son said today, in an appeal for her immediate release from “cruel and life-threatening” custody.

Kim Aris told Reuters that his 80-year-old mother, in military custody since a 2021 coup that deposed her government, had asked to see a cardiologist about a month ago, but he had been unable to determine whether her request had been granted.

“Without proper medical examinations... it is impossible to know what state her heart is in,” he said by phone from London. “I am extremely worried. There is no way of verifying if she is even alive.”

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has also suffered from bone and gum issues, Aris said, adding that it was likely she had been injured in an earthquake in March that killed more than 3,700 people. In a Facebook video, he appealed for Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Myanmar to be released.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s military-backed interim government did not pick up calls from Reuters seeking comment, and its information ministry did not immediately respond to questions sent via email.

Myanmar has been gripped by violence since the military takeover in February 2021, which prompted mass rallies that were crushed by brutal force, sparking a widespread armed uprising.

Suu Kyi, a long-standing symbol of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, is serving a 27-year sentence for offences including incitement, corruption and election fraud, all of which she denies.

One of her last public appearances was in court in May 2021, a few months after the coup, when pictures aired by state television showed her sitting upright in the dock, with her hands in her lap and wearing a surgical mask.

Kim Aris, the son of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained former leader, poses for a portrait at the Reuters office in London April 18, 2024. — Reuters pic

Decades in detention

The military justified its takeover on the basis of what it said was widespread fraud in an election that Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, although election monitors found no evidence of cheating.

Foreign governments and rights groups have consistently called for her release.

Starting in late December, the military-backed interim government plans to hold new elections in multiple phases, the first polls since the one that triggered the coup.

Anti-junta groups, including Suu Kyi’s party, are either boycotting or are barred from running, with only military-backed and approved parties participating. Western governments have criticised the vote as a move to entrench the generals’ power.

Born in 1945 to Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated when she was an infant, Suu Kyi has spent nearly two decades in detention, including some 15 years under house arrest at her colonial-style family on Yangon’s Inya Lake, as ordered by a previous junta.

Educated at Oxford University, she married British scholar Michael Aris in 1972 and had two sons with him, before returning to Myanmar in 1988 to care for her ailing mother.

That is also when she joined nationwide protests against military rule, forming the National League for Democracy party and rising to become Myanmar’s most prominent pro-democracy leader. — Reuters