Myanmar’s ousted leader Suu Kyi under house arrest
Suu Kyi’s transfer comes as the army has suffered a string of major defeats at the hands of prodemocracy resistance fighters and their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla forces
Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said as it freed more than 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday.
Those released included several political prisoners, including a member of the Kachin minority who is one of the country’s most prominent Christian church leaders.
Suu Kyi, 78, and Win Myint, the 72-year-old former president of her ousted government, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved to house arrest because of the severe heat, military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told foreign media representatives late Tuesday. The move had not yet been publicly announced in Myanmar as of Wednesday aternoon.
Suu Kyi’s transfer comes as the army has suffered a string of major defeats at the hands of pro-democracy resistance fighters and their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla forces. The nationwide conflict began ater the army ousted the elected government in February 2021, imprisoned Suu
Kyi and began suppressing nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
Suu Kyi has been serving a 27-year prison term on a variety of criminal convictions in a specially built annex of the main prison in the capital Naypyitaw, where Myanmar’s meteorological department said temperatures reached 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday aternoon. Win Myint was serving an eight-year prison sentence in Taungoo in the Bago region.
Suu Kyi’s supporters and independent analysts say the charges were fabricated in an atempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that monitors casualties and arrests, more than 20,351 people arrested on political charges since the 2021 army takeover are still in detention, most of whom have not received criminal convictions.
Suu Kyi’s health has reportedly deteriorated in prison. In September last year, reports emerged that she was suffering from symptoms of low blood pressure including dizziness and loss of appetite, but had been denied treatment at qualified facilities outside the prison system.
Those reports could not be independently confirmed, but her younger son Kim Aris said in interviews that he had heard that his mother has been extremely ill and has been suffering from gum problems and was unable to eat.
News about Suu Kyi is tightly controlled by the military government, and even her lawyers are banned by a gag order from talking to the media about her cases. Her legal team also has been unable to meet with her face to face since December 2022.
Whether the latest move is meant to be temporary was not announced.
Spokesperson Zaw Min Tun did not say where the released prisoners were being moved to in his remarks to Us-government funded Voice of America and Britain’s BBC, but there was no indication it might be one of her own former homes.
Before being sent to prison, Suu Kyi was reportedly held in a military safe house inside an army base.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s martyred independence hero Gen. Aung San, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest by previous military governments between 1989 and 2010. Her tough stand against military rule turned her into a symbol of the nonviolent struggle for democracy and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Nay Phone Lat, spokesperson of the shadow National Unity Government, told The Associated Press that all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi and Win Myint, were unjustly detained and should be freed without conditions. The NUG views serves as an umbrella opposition organization.
He said it was unacceptable for the military government to resolve its difficulties by playing political games, such as changing prisoners’ places of detention and reducing sentences. The army’s recent batlefield setbacks, including last week’s loss to resistance forces of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand, is seen by many as underlining its increasing weakness.