Reuters
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Myanmar’s military government announced on Tuesday that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in “good health.” A day later, her son told Reuters there was little information available about the 80-year-old Suu Kyi’s condition and he feared she could die without her knowledge.
In an interview in Tokyo, Kim Arisu said she had not heard from her mother in years and believed her mother was being held in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi was detained after a 2021 military coup ousted her chosen civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges including sedition, corruption and election fraud, all of which she denies.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health,” a statement published on the military-run Myanmar Digital News said, using the former leader’s title. The statement provided no evidence or details about her condition.
Aris could not be reached for comment on the junta’s statement.
He said Myanmar’s multi-stage elections starting on December 28 could offer an opportunity to alleviate the mother’s plight, although many foreign governments have dismissed the poll as a sham aimed at legitimizing military rule.
Aris said he wants the military to release Suu Kyi or place her under house arrest to appease her critics ahead of the vote.
The junta accused Aris of trying to interfere in the election, the first general election since 2020, in which the military accused Suu Kyi of fraud.
“This is simply a hoax timed and distributed to disrupt the free and fair multi-party democratic general elections to be held in Myanmar in the near future,” the statement said.
Myanmar’s largest political party, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, remains dissolved, and several other anti-junta political groups are also boycotting the vote.
