Myanmar's Military Arranged a Call for Suu Kyi's Son, Who Says She Is Being Held Alone

The Myanmar military arranged a 20-minute phone call Thursday between Kim Aris and his mother, Aung San Suu Kyi, the first direct conversation between them since the February 2021 coup that toppled the government she led. Aris, a 49-year-old carpenter living in London, spoke to her for the first time in nearly six years.

Aris said her opening words were a question about his health. He said he passed along the family's love and asked about hers. "My mother is actually alive and well," Aris told NPR. "Hearing her voice has reassured me." Khaing Khaing Soe, a spokesperson for Myanmar's military-backed president, said on social media that the call went through Myanmar's Embassy in London and posted photographs of both participants.

Aris learned from the call that Suu Kyi, 81, is held at a residence near the capital, Naypyidaw, ringed by police and military personnel. He described the building as fenced off with a scrubby garden she is probably allowed to use. "From what I can ascertain, she's basically being held in solitary confinement even if she's not in a prison cell," he said. She reads books but has no radio, television or newspapers, he said.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, was sentenced in 2021 and through consecutive trials in 2022 to a combined 33 years on corruption and electoral fraud charges. The U.S., Western governments and human rights groups have called the charges fabricated. The term was reduced and she has 18 years left to serve. Aris said she sounded strong but reported considerable pain from tendonitis in one hand, which at times she cannot use, and gets a health check every six months.

Aris said he believes the military monitored the call, so the civil war and other sensitive subjects went unmentioned. He recalled that during her house arrest in Yangon from 1989 to 2010, the regime photographed parcels sent to her for propaganda purposes. He framed the call as an image effort by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, who became president after a military-engineered election in January and has been traveling abroad seeking recognition. "I hope that governments around the world won't be taken in," Aris said.

The 2021 coup set off a conflict ACLED estimates has killed about 100,000 people, with the U.N. reporting millions displaced. ACLED says attacks on civilians have risen since Min Aung Hlaing took the presidency. He remains under U.S. sanctions over the 2016-2017 killings and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, which Washington has called a genocide. Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group called her status "potentially the most valuable card Min Aung Hlaing holds" and said her release is "very unlikely." The U.S. State Department has called for her "immediate and unconditional release" since August.

Aris said he may send a care package, and his mother asked for a mix of healthy food and treats. He is considering Ben's Cookies, a brand founded in Oxford, England, where she raised her two sons with the late Michael Aris before returning to Burma in 1988 to care for her mother.