Five days after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar with nearly 4,000 killed, there has been no information from the regime in Naypyidaw regarding the health and well-being of Myanmar’s most famed political prisoner, jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I have heard that she is safe,” Khin Maung Myint, a retired prison warden in Myanmar, told DVB. He claimed that Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to a home in Naypyidaw belonging to a regime deputy minister. But this claim has not been substantiated by anyone associated with the regime.
The 79-year-old Aung San Suu Kyu has had her access and communications to the outside world cut off since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. She has been denied access to her legal team since December 2022.
“[She is] being held as a hostage. The military regime has full responsibility for her safety, after all they have done to her,” Htun Kyi, the Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS) spokesperson, told DVB.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s son Kim Aris has received one letter from his mother in January 2024. Since then he’s had no news or updates from the regime, which has been holding her in detention in Naypyidaw since the 2021 coup. It sentenced her to 27 years in prison.
In January, Kim Aris launched the “Suu 80th birthday campaign” ahead of his mother’s birthday on June 19, when Aung San Suu Kyi will turn 80. Last month, Aris visited the U.S. to raise awareness about the 28,960 political prisoners in Myanmar, including his mother and President Win Myint, who’s also been held by the regime since the 2021 coup.
Nay Phone Latt, the National Unity Government (NUG) Prime Minister’s spokesperson, expressed “deep concern” over Aung San Suu Kyi’s safety in Naypyidaw and those being held at Mandalay’s Obo Prison, which is the nearest site to the epicenter of the earthquake zone that has killed at least 3,756 people.
DVB contacted regime spokesperson Zaw Min Tun to request information about Aung San Suu Kyi’s health conditions and location since the earthquake on March 28 but has not receive any response.
