Kim Aris, son of Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, on Dec 15. - Reuters
YANGON: Myanmar’s junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "in good health,” a day after her son told Reuters he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing.
In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges including incitement, corruption and election fraud - all of which she denies.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health," a statement posted on junta-run Myanmar Digital News said on Tuesday (Dec 16), using an honorific for the former leader. The statement offered no evidence or details about her condition.
"The military claims she is in good health, yet they refuse to provide any independent proof, no recent photograph, no medical verification, and no access by family, doctors, or international observers. If she is truly well, they can prove it," Aris told Reuters on Wednesday in response to the statement.
A Myanmar junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In the interview earlier this week, Aris had said he hopes an upcoming multi-phase election in Myanmar, starting Dec 28, might offer an opportunity for the military to release Suu Kyi or move her to house arrest.
Myanmar's military has a history of releasing prisoners to mark holidays or important events. Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 days after an election, ending a previous long period of detention.
Aris has joined a chorus of critics, including several foreign governments, dismissing the polls as a sham aimed at legitimising military rule.
The junta accused Aris of trying to disrupt the election - the first general poll since 2020, when the military accused Suu Kyi of committing fraud.
"This is merely a fabrication, timed and distributed to disrupt the free and fair multi-party democratic general election that will be held in Myanmar in the near future," the junta statement said.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, Myanmar's largest political party, remains dissolved and several other anti-junta political groups are boycotting the polls.
"I have no intention of interfering in Burma’s politics. But after years of total isolation, secrecy, and silence, any son would begin to fear the worst," Aris added in response to the junta's statement, using the country's former name..
"My concern is growing because my mother has been hidden for so long that I now have to ask the most painful question: is she still alive?" - Reuters
