Suu Kyi being used as a human shield, says her son

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, the detained former leader of Myanmar, is being used as a “human shield” to protect the ruling junta from drone attacks, her son says.

Ms Suu Kyi was this week moved from prison to house arrest. The army said the change was to protect her and other elderly prisoners from the hot weather. It was not clear where exactly she had been moved to.

However, her son Kim Aris, who lives in London, claimed that the real reason was for the junta to protect itself from a surge in rebel attacks.

“I think they have their own reasons for moving her, namely that they’d like to use her as a human shield or a bargaining chip,” he told Reuters.

It could be “against armed drones which are being used to try to remove this military tyranny by a brave opposition” he said in a separate interview with The Independent.

Linn Thant, a representative of the opposition National Unity Government has echoed Mr Aris’s concerns.

“There is a real risk that the junta will strategically position [Ms Suu Kyi] and the president at key military installations, thereby exposing them to potential targeting by the revolutionary forces,” Mr Thant said in a statement.

Ms Suu Kyi has been detained by the Myanmar military since it overthrew her government in a 2021 coup. Since then a junta crackdown on protests in the wake of the coup has sparked a grass-roots rebellion and re-ignited conflict with some ethnic armies.

A resistance movement is coordinating attacks with established ethnic groups to challenge the military.