Kim Aris, the son of Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has expressed grave concern over his mother’s health, saying he is no longer certain whether she is still alive due to a prolonged lack of information about her condition.
In an interview with Reuters, Aris said Suu Kyi has long suffered from health problems and has not been seen by anyone for more than two years. He added that her lawyers have been denied access to her, and the family has received no direct communication during this period.
“I fear she may already be dead,” Aris said, citing reports received only indirectly about her heart condition, bone issues and dental problems since Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in 2021.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is serving a combined 27-year prison sentence on charges including incitement, corruption and election fraud—allegations she has consistently denied.
Aris believes she is being held in the capital, Naypyidaw. In the last letter he received from her two years ago, she complained about extreme temperatures in her prison cell during both summer and winter.
While rejecting the military junta’s plan to hold elections later this month, Aris said the vote could still create a narrow opportunity to ease his mother’s situation. He alleged that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing might use Suu Kyi for political leverage, possibly releasing her or placing her under house arrest to calm public discontent before or after the polls.
Myanmar’s military authorities did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Aris’s claims.
Historically, Myanmar’s military has released prisoners ahead of national events or elections. Suu Kyi herself was freed in 2010 shortly after an election, ending years of house arrest at her family home near Yangon’s Inya Lake.
After leading the country following her party’s victory in the 2015 election, Suu Kyi’s international standing declined sharply over the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine State. Although the United Nations described the military campaign against the Rohingya as genocidal, Aris insisted his mother was not responsible. He noted that while Suu Kyi acknowledged possible war crimes at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2020, she rejected allegations of genocide.
Aris also warned that global attention is drifting away from Myanmar amid multiple international conflicts. With elections scheduled for December 28, the first since the coup, he urged Japan and other countries to take a firm stance against the junta and push for Suu Kyi’s release.
“Everyone knows the military’s election will be neither free nor fair,” he said. “But I have to use this small opportunity.”
Myanmar has remained deeply unstable since the 2021 coup, with armed resistance groups controlling large parts of the country and ongoing clashes further weakening the junta’s grip on power.
