81-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi reports good health after five-year isolation

Aung San Suu Kyi, 81, is in good physical and mental condition but remains in near-total isolation, according to her son Kim Aris. He made the assessment after speaking with her by phone for the first time in more than five years.

The former leader was deposed in a military coup in 2021 and has since been moved to an unspecified location in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aris believes she is held in a fenced-off residence surrounded by scrubby land. He stated that he does not think she has anyone around her except military or police personnel, meaning she has essentially been in solitary confinement.

Aris, who has lived most of his life in the United Kingdom, was permitted to call his mother on Thursday from the Myanmar embassy in London. He described the call as part of a public relations campaign by the country’s military leaders, who are attempting to rebuild diplomatic ties. Former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing recently swapped military fatigues for civilian clothes after elections that were widely criticized as a sham.

Activists have long demanded proof of life for Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. In August, she was photographed during a Red Cross visit. Last week, a government spokesperson released images of her smiling in a wood-paneled room while officials handed her two gardening books from Britain's King Charles. A paper calendar on the wall behind her showed the date. Aris described such photo opportunities as familiar stunts used by the regime to suggest fair treatment.

She remains completely shut off from the rest of the world, Aris said. She is not allowed newspapers, radio, or television. He noted that she has been locked up for five years on politically motivated charges and should be free. Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated independence hero Gen Aung San, has spent much of her life since the late 1980s in and out of house arrest for leading pro-democracy movements.

Myanmar saw a brief democratic opening after Suu Kyi won a landslide election victory in 2015. She served as state counsellor under a civilian-military power-sharing arrangement. Her international standing suffered after mass killings and expulsions of Rohingya Muslims in 2016 and 2017. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, she acknowledged that military units might have used disproportionate force but defended the government against genocide accusations.

Aris said his mother was never silent on the Rohingya crisis and that her views on the issue could fill volumes. He noted that under her leadership, Myanmar began a domestic inquiry and appointed former UN chief Kofi Annan to lead a commission. He added that she was always walking on a tightrope as state counsellor, knowing the military could remove her fragile power at any time.

The 2021 takeover triggered a civil war that conflict monitors say has killed more than 100,000 people. Aris said global public support for his mother has dwindled incredibly since the Rohingya crisis. He stated that the whole country now suffers from a lack of international attention and that people ignoring what is happening in Burma should not be blamed solely on past events involving the Rohingya.