The noble laureate’s son said the military needed to “prove” that Suu Kyi, who has been detained and missing for years after a military coup, is healthy.
Myanmar, which is under military rule, has announced that the health condition of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is “good” amid concerns about the health of the democratic leader who was ousted from power in a coup in 2021.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health,” a statement published on the military-run Myanmar Digital News said on Tuesday, using the country’s official title for the leader.
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The military, which has provided no evidence or details about Aung San Suu Kyi’s condition, issued the statement a day after her son Kim Aris told Reuters there was little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and feared she could die without her knowledge.
“The military claims that she is in good health, but they are refusing to provide independent evidence, recent photographs, medical certificates or access to her family, doctors or international monitors,” Aris told Reuters on Wednesday in response to a military statement.
“If she’s really fine, they’ll be able to prove it,” he said.
A Myanmar government spokesperson did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In an interview in October, Alice told the Asia Times that she believed her mother had been missing for at least two years and had been kept in solitary confinement in a prison in the capital Naypyidaw, with “not even other prisoners seeing her.”
Aung San Suu Kyi was detained after the 2021 military coup that toppled her elected civilian government from power and is currently serving a 27-year sentence on widely believed to be trumped-up charges including sedition, corruption and electoral fraud, all of which she denies.
Alice also said the military “likes to spread rumors” about her mother’s health in custody.
“They say she is under house arrest, but there is no evidence of that at all. At times, it was said that she had a stroke and died,” he told Asia Times.
“It’s obviously difficult to deal with all this misinformation,” he said.
Civil war has gripped Myanmar since a 2021 coup, but the military has scheduled elections later this month that analysts and some foreign governments have dismissed as sham elections to legitimize military rule.
As fighting intensifies across the country, Myanmar’s largest political party, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), remains dissolved and several anti-junta groups are boycotting the vote.
On Wednesday, the military announced it was prosecuting more than 200 people under a law banning “interference” in elections, which human rights monitors say is aimed at quashing dissent.
The junta’s interior minister, Tun Tun Naung, said a “total of 229 people” had been charged with “attempting to disrupt the electoral process,” according to state media.
If convicted in a Myanmar court under electoral law, he could face up to 10 years in prison, and authorities have arrested people simply for posting a “heart” emoji on a Facebook post criticizing polls.
The law also prohibits damaging ballots or polling places, or threatening or harming voters, candidates, or election officials, and carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
