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Kim Aris to accept Citizen of Burma Award on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi at ceremony in US

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Kim Aris was welcomed by members of the Myanmar diaspora in the U.S. upon arrival in New York City on March 11. (Credit: DVB)

Kim Aris, the youngest son of jailed Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, announced on Saturday that he will travel to Houston, Texas to accept the Citizen of Burma Award 2025 – from the U.S.-based organization of the same name – on behalf of his mother on May 24. 

“This award belongs not just to my mother, but to all those in Burma who continue to resist tyranny with courage and dignity,” Aris shared on social media on May 17. He added that he is grateful to the award committee and all those around the world who continue to fight for freedom in Myanmar. 

The 16th annual Citizen of Burma Award is being bestowed upon Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of her 80th birthday on June 19. She’s currently serving a 27-year prison sentence in the capital Naypyidaw, where she’s been held since her National League for Democracy (NLD) was ousted from government and she was arrested in a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021.

“This event demonstrates a united voice for Myanmar people both locally and internationally,” Kyaw Wunna, the founder of Citizen of Burma Award told DVB. “People like us, who live abroad, will continue to work for the release of [Aung San Suu Kyi] and all political prisoners,” he added. 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s Yangon home at 54 University Avenue is now in legal limbo after a fourth failed auction attempt by the Kamayut District Court on April 29.

Aris told DVB that he has only received one letter from his mother in the last four years of her detention. He added that he heard rumors that she may have been injured during the March 28 earthquake, but has not received any proof of life from her, or the regime.

Two years ago, he received a letter from his mother thanking him for a medical care package he had sent to her in prison.

Aris launched the “Suu 80th birthday campaign” in January to raise international awareness about his mother’s deteriorating health condition and prolonged detention, along with the 22,106 other political prisoners that the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has documented being held in Myanmar. 

Aris told DVB that he has raised $400,000 USD in donations by selling calendars and other items featuring Burmese art, including the work of Nilar Thein. She was the wife of Ko Jimmy (aka Kyaw Min Yu), one of the pro-democracy activists sentenced to death and executed in prison by the regime in 2022.

A total of 8,000 calendars have been sold, added Aris, who wants to set a world record for the most birthday wishes and e-cards ahead of Aung San Suu Kyi’s 80th birthday on June 19.

During his visit to the U.S. in March, Aris visited seven states and met with over 5,000 members of the Myanmar diaspora. He also met with several U.S. government officials, Australian economist and former NLD economic advisor Sean Turnell, as well as officials from the National Unity Government (NUG). 

The Citizen of Burma Award has been given each year, since 2010, to a Myanmar citizen who contributes to knowledge, labor, skills and resources towards social services and charities for “the Burmese community inside Burma,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

For those unable to attend the ceremony on May 24, the Citizen of Burma Award is making the event available to watch for free on its website and Facebook page. 

The NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung, the Deputy Human Rights Minister Aung Kyaw Moe, and the previous recipient of the Citizen of Burma Award – Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the U.N. – Kyaw Moe Tun, will attend the ceremony.  

Each winner of the Citizen of Burma Award receives $10,000 USD, according to Kyaw Wunna. 

Resistance attacks Air Force base in Bago Region; 9 People’s Defence Force members killed in Mandalay Region

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Resistance forces attacked the regime’s Kaytumadi Air Force Base in Bago Region with 107-mm rockets on May 18. (Credit: Brave Warriors for Myanmar)

Resistance attacks air force base in Bago Region

A resistance group calling itself the Brave Warriors for Myanmar claimed that it launched 11 rockets at the Kaytumadi Air Force Base in Taungoo Township of Bago Region which killed 10, including two air force officers with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and injured at least 12 others on Sunday. Taungoo is located 134 miles (216 km) north of the region’s capital Bago. 

“This attack was in response to the military’s bombing and killing of civilians, including the airstrike on the school in Ohhteintwin village of Depayin Township that killed children and teachers,” a spokesperson from Brave Warriors for Myanmar told DVB. He added that three aircraft used to launch airstrikes against resistance forces were destroyed by rockets. 

This was the ninth attack on the Kaytumadi Air Force Base since March 2023. The Brave Warriors for Myanmar claimed that it and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) launched five rockets at the regime’s Bayinnaung combat training school in Thandaunggyi Township on Monday. It also attacked the Southern Military Command and Kaytumadi Air Force Base with rockets on April 30.  

Nine People’s Defence Force members killed in Mandalay Region

At least nine People’s Defence Force (PDF) members were killed during fighting with regime forces in Myingyan, Natogyi, Taungtha and Ngazun townships of Myingyan District, Mandalay Region, over the last four days, the PDF told DVB. It launched an offensive simultaneously against eight regime outposts in the district on May 15.

“We were unable to capture regime camps and had to retreat as they launched retaliatory air and artillery strikes heavily,” a PDF spokesperson told DVB. Another PDF member told DVB that they could bury only three bodies out of the six members who were killed by retaliatory airstrikes carried out by the Burma Air Force. 

Myingyan District is located 69 miles (111 km) southwest of the region’s capital Mandalay. The fighting reportedly continued in the district until May 17. The PDF stated that the regime suffered heavy casualties but did not disclose any number. Singu, Tagaung and Thabeikkyin towns are under PDF control and are administered by the National Unity Government (NUG). 

Aung Naing Soe, the co-author of Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military, joined the DVB Newsroom on May 8. (Credit: DVB)

Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military

Aung Naing Soe, a journalist and documentary filmmaker from Burma living and working in exile, joined the DVB Newsroom to discuss the new book he co-authored with Joe Freeman called Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military.

“There are many frontlines in the current crisis situation in Myanmar. We feature five poets. One of them is K Za Win, the poet from Monywa in central Myanmar. He was killed by the military in March 2021 during the [anti-coup] protest,” Aung Naing Soe told DVB.

Watch DVB Newsroom season 2 episode 16 featuring Aung Naing Soe on his book Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military on DVB English News YouTube or Spotify. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or wherever you get podcasts.

News by Region

KARENNI—Foreign currency exchange operators in Mese Township reported that counterfeit kyat banknotes are in circulation. Mese is located on the Burma-Thailand border 109 miles (175 km) south of the state capital Loikaw. One operator told DVB that the fake notes are in the 10,000 MMK ($2.2 USD) denomination. 

“They look almost identical to real notes at a glance. But if you touch them, the texture feels as smooth as regular paper,” he told DVB on the condition of anonymity. He also warned residents to check for the security thread embedded in genuine banknotes and to feel for the printed numbers as fake notes lack this embossed texture. 

MAGWAY—Two civilians sustained minor injuries after the Burma Air Force carried out two airstrikes on a clinic in Kamma town of Pakkoku Township on Sunday, residents told DVB. Kamma is located 115 miles (185 km) south of the region’s capital Magway.

Residents added that there was no fighting between regime and resistance forces and that the clinic has been closed for a year due to the fear of airstrikes. Motorized paraglider attacks on a traditional medicine factory in Kamma town on March 28 reportedly killed two workers at the factory. 

SAGAING—Pale Township residents told DVB that four civilians were killed and four others were injured by an airstrike in Nwein village on Sunday. Nwein is under PDF control and is located 13 miles (20 km) west of Pale, which is 35 miles (56 km) southwest of the region’s capital Monywa. 

“[The military] carried out an airstrike on a place where civilians live,” a PDF member told DVB, adding that the regime doesn’t differentiate between civilians and the resistance. The PDF claimed that the military only uses aircrafts, paramotors and drones to strike from above. 

(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 4,400 MMK) 

Regime Labour Ministry threatens employment agencies with ‘blacklisting’ if tax payments missed

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Myanmar migrant workers at a jetty in Kawthaung, Tanintharyi Region, before departure to Thailand in December 2022. (Credit: Regime media)

The regime Ministry of Labour has warned 28 foreign employment agencies to pay the outstanding tax for the previous year by May 31 or risk being blacklisted, according to an industry insider. 

“We have to pay the tax on time, so it would be helpful if the ministry could speed up the labour screening process,” an overseas employment agent told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Sources told DVB that the agencies must pay five percent of the service fee from each worker as a tax.

Over 600 agencies have obtained licences for overseas employment but only 485 of them sent 131,501 workers abroad last year, according to the ministry’s figures released in early May. 

Agency owners told DVB that delays in processing workers following the March 28 earthquake have caused an unknown number of employees to lose their jobs after failing to return to their positions on time.

Foreign workers must apply for the Overseas Worker Identification Cards (OWIC) from the ministry under the 1999 Foreign Employment Law. An OWIC has a five-year term to travel for overseas employment. The Ministry of Labour keeps detailed information about the OWIC holder.

But the screening process for OWIC has been delayed as the Ministry of Labour office in Naypyidaw was damaged by the earthquake. Naypyidaw is located 172 miles (277 km) south of the earthquake epicenter in Sagaing Region.

A foreign worker who returned to Myanmar from Singapore to renew his OWIC told DVB that he lost his job after being unable to return to work on time due to delays in the re-issuance process.

The regime Department of Labour under the ministry announced in early April that it could process labour screening only once a week. It added that over 3,200 workers were screened and granted OWIC in March. 

The issuance of OWIC was resumed on March 20 after a month-long pause. The devastating earthquake struck central Myanmar eight days later. It killed 4,477 and injured 11,366, according to DVB data. 

Aung San Suu Kyi home in legal limbo after failed fourth auction attempt

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Aung San Suu Kyi's family home at 54 University Avenue in Yangon, where she famously spent 15 years under house arrest. (Credit: Reuters)

Attorneys for jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi told the Kamaryut District Court in Yangon on May 15 that it is unprecedented for the losing party in a legal dispute over the auction of an inherited estate to propose a valuation. This comes after four attempts by Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo to lower the floor price of 54 University Avenue, a source close to the court told DVB on the condition of anonymity. 

“The military wants to continue making life as difficult for [my mother] as possible. If they take away that property, she won’t have any property of her own in [Myanmar],” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told DVB. He added that the regime must be pushing his uncle Aung San Oo to auction off the residence without his mother’s consent.

Aung San Oo requested Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team to set a floor price for the family home at 54 University Avenue in Yangon’s Bahan Township after a fourth failed auction attempt on April 29.

In 2016, the Western Yangon District Court granted Aung San Suu Kyi the two-story lakeside villa at 54 University Avenue, but half of the two-acre property along Inya Lake was to be equally divided between her and Aung San Oo.

The Supreme Court upheld an appeal from Aung San Oo to auction the residence in August 2022. In inheritance cases, only the winning party sets the floor price of the property. It is legally unprecedented for the losing party to set the price, the source told DVB citing Aung San Suu Kyi’s attorneys.

The source added that since Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team is not permitted to communicate with her by the regime in Naypyidaw, which seized power and ousted her National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021. It immediately placed her in detention, sentencing her to 33 years in prison which was later reduced to 27 years. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 80-years-old on June 19, has been held incommunicado in Naypyidaw ever since the 2021 military coup. Aris has only received one letter from his mother in the last four-plus years of her imprisonment. He told DVB that he heard rumors she may have been injured during the March 28 earthquake, but has so far not even received any proof of life from her, or the regime.

The court has set four home auction dates over the last year with the floor price reduced on each occasion. The first took place on March 20, 2024 with a floor price of 315 billion MMK ($70.7 million USD). 

The second was held on Aug. 15 with a floor price of 300 billion MMK ($67.4 million USD). The third auction attempt took place on Feb. 5 with a floor price set at 297 billion MMK ($66.7 USD). The fourth attempt with a floor price at 270 billion MMK ($60.6 million USD) took place in April. 

Since there have been no bids made on the residence over the last four attempts, Aung San Oo has requested Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team propose a price.

Kyee Myint, a veteran lawyer from Myanmar, told DVB that lawyers do not have the right to propose a price for an estate without their client’s approval, which they don’t have because they’ve been unable to meet with her since 2022. 

The residence at 54 University Avenue was owned by Khin Kyi, the wife of Myanmar independence hero Aung San and the mother of Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo. 

It is also where Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest imposed by previous military regimes until she was freed in 2010 and allowed to run in a by-election, which she won, then take a seat as a member of parliament for the NLD in 2012. 

Aris launched the “Suu 80th birthday campaign” in January to raise international awareness about his mother’s deteriorating health condition and prolonged detention, along with the 22,106 other political prisoners being held in Myanmar.

The Citizen of Burma Award announced that Aung San Suu Kyi will be its 2025 recipient for her work contributing knowledge, labor, skills and resources towards social services and charities for “the Burmese community inside Burma,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

Kyaw Wanna, the founder of the Citizen of Burma Award, told DVB that Aris will travel to the U.S. to accept the award on behalf of his mother at the ceremony in Houston, Texas on May 24.

He added that the National Unity Government (NUG) Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung, the Deputy Human Rights Minister Aung Kyaw Moe, and the award’s previous recipient Burma’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Kyaw Moe Tun, will also be in attendance.

Winners of the Citizen of Burma Award receive $10,000 USD.   

Farmers in Myanmar unable to resume agriculture after quake

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People queue for food and relief supplies after the March 28 earthquake in Amarapura Township of Mandalay Region on April 1, 2025. (Credit: Reuters)

Farmers in central Myanmar, where the March 28 earthquake killed 4,477 and injured 11,366, told DVB that they have been unable to resume their traditional agricultural practices since the quake.

Two killed by fallen tree during aftershock in Mandalay; Military executes two after raid in Sagaing Region

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A rescue worker cuts through a tree to save residents of Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township trapped under it on May 17. (Credit: Manisala Charity Group)

Two killed by fallen tree during aftershock in Mandalay

A four-year-old girl and her father, who were sheltering in a monastery compound in Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township, were killed by a tree following a 5.2 magnitude aftershock on Saturday, according to the regime Fire Services Department. Mandalay residents have reported frequent aftershocks since the earthquake struck central Burma on March 28.

The regime Department of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that the aftershock struck six miles (9.6 km) southwest of Myittha town, which is located 44 miles (71 km) south of Mandalay. It has recorded 175 aftershocks since March 28. Nearly 4,000 buildings were destroyed by the earthquake in Mandalay, according to the Mandalay City Development Committee. 

Sources told DVB that the MCDC’s ”sluggish” procedure is one of the reasons hampering restoration efforts. Mandalay, located 15 miles (24 km) east of the earthquake epicenter in Sagaing Region, reported at least 2,916 killed. At least 4,477 have been killed and 11,366 have been injured by the March 28 earthquake, according to DVB data. 

Six People’s Defence Force members killed by regime

Six members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) were killed during fighting with regime forces in Myingyan District of Mandalay Region on May 15, the PDF told DVB. It added that the regime suffered heavy casualties but did not disclose any number. Myingyan is located 69 miles (111 km) southwest of the region’s capital Mandalay. 

“We launched a district-level offensive. The regime relied heavily on airstrikes to defend their posts,” a PDF spokesperson in Madaya Township told DVB. The PDF attacked regime outposts in Myingyan, Taungtha, Natogyi and Simeekhon towns of Myingyan District simultaneously on May 15, according to residents. 

One resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the clashes occurred as close as two miles (3.2 km) from Myingyan town. The PDF launched an operation to seize the district in August but the regime maintains control over urban areas. Singu, Tagaung and Thabeikkyin towns are under PDF control and are administered by the National Unity Government (NUG). 

At least 10 homes were destroyed by a fire caused by an artillery attack on Ngalontin village of Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region, on May 15. (Credit: Myaelatt Athan)

Military executes two after raid in Sagaing Region

Chaung-U Township residents in Sagaing Region told DVB that two civilians were executed by regime forces during a raid on the Yehlay neighborhood on Friday. Over 100 civilians were arrested during the raid. Chaung-U is located along Chindwin River 16 miles (25 km) south of the Sagaing region capital Monywa. It is under regime control but contested by resistance forces. 

“The military raided the monastery where more than 100 residents, including women and children, were staying temporarily because they were afraid of staying inside their homes. The military arrested two men in their 30s and killed them outside the monastery,” a Chaung-U resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity, adding that regime troops are now stationed inside the monastery. 

Seven civilians were killed and at least three others were injured by artillery fire on the town and Ngalontin village, which is located one mile east of Chaung-U, May 15-16. At least 12 civilians have been killed by air and artillery attacks in Chaung-U since May 7, according to local reports. An unknown number of residents have been forced to flee their homes for safety. 

News by Region

SAGAING—Four civilians, including a 10-year-old, were killed by a motorized paraglider attack on Sithalay village of Monywa Township — the region’s capital and the headquarters of the regime’s Northwestern Regional Military Command (RMC) — on Saturday, the PDF told DVB.

Ko Demo, a PDF spokesperson, added that the regime carried out another paraglider attack on Wadan village in Monywa on the same date and that the number of casualties was still being counted. The regime announced its unilateral ceasefire April 2-30, which it renewed from May 6-31.

SHAN—The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) released a report on May 15 about the expansion of rare earth mining operations in an area controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA). Satellite imagery shows a mining site in Mong Yawn village of Mong Hsat Township, located 263 miles (423 km) east of the state capital Taunggyi.

Ying Leng Harn, the SHRF spokesperson, told DVB that research into the levels of toxicity in the nearby Kok River caused by rare earth mining has led to Thai authorities warning residents of Chiang Rai Province in neighbouring Thailand to avoid consuming water from the river and its connected waterways.  

MANDALAY—Regime media reported that 17 members of a gang were arrested for 10 armed robberies in five townships. A source close to the police force told DVB that the gang leader was arrested on May 5 after an investigation into a robbery at Shwe Zamani gold shop in Chanmyathazi Township on April 28. 

“Police arrested the leader, his wife, and the 15 others with three vehicles, weapons and camouflage patterned clothing,” a source close to the Mandalay Police Force told DVB on the condition of anonymity. The gang is also under investigation for armed robbery in Tada-U, Amarapura, Kyaukse, and Maha Aungmyay townships. 

(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 4,440 MMK) 

Op-ed: How jet fuel enables the Myanmar military to continue its airstrikes. Find DVB English News on X, FB, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, & TikTok, Subscribe on YouTube.

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