After nearly 6 years, ex-Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's son hears her voice

CHIANG MAI, Thailand— After nearly six years in detention, Aung San Suu Kyi's first words to her son were a question about his health.

"And then I said all the family was sending their love and asked after her health," said Kim Aris, who spoke by phone with his 81-year-old mother on Thursday, their first direct conversation since the 2021 military coup toppled the democratically elected Myanmar government she led.

The 20-minute call, which Aris, who lives in London, believes the military monitored, offered a rare glimpse of how the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is being held. She was first sentenced in 2021, with consecutive trials through 2022 bringing her total sentence to 33 years on corruption and electoral fraud charges, widely condemned by the U.S., Western countries, and human rights groups as fabricated. The sentence was later reduced, leaving her with 18 years still to serve.

Little has been known about her condition since the coup, which triggered a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event data, a conflict monitoring organization. The U.N. says the conflict has displaced millions.

"My mother is actually alive and well," said Aris, 49, a carpenter, who has campaigned for her release and sought to raise awareness of the crisis engulfing the Southeast Asian nation. "Hearing her voice has reassured me."

Khaing Khaing Soe, a spokesperson for Myanmar's military-backed president, said on social media that Aris spoke with Suu Kyi by telephone through Myanmar's Embassy in London, and shared separate photographs of the two.

Until now, Aris said he had received almost no word from her — just a single censored letter three years ago and occasional second-hand scraps of information. From the call, he said he learned she is being held at "a residence" somewhere in the surroundings of Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw. He also said he believes police and military personnel surround the building, which is "fenced off, with a scrubby, nondescript garden which I believe she is allowed to go out into."

"From what I can ascertain, she's basically being held in solitary confinement even if she's not in a prison cell," Aris said.

She was permitted to read books, he said, adding, "I don't think she gets any news. So no radio, no television, no newspapers."

Her health has long been a worry for the family. While she "sounded strong," Aris said, "she is still in a lot of pain because her hand is playing up." She told him she has tendonitis. "She said it is very painful, and at points she can't even use her hand." She also said she gets a health checkup every six months.

He believes food is cooked at the residence and sometimes delivered by her lawyers, though not directly to the premises. Aris said he hopes to send her care packages, and she had a request.

She would like "some healthy foods and some nice foods — something of a treat," he said. "She'd like it half and half so it wasn't too much of either."

Aris said he is thinking of including Ben's Cookies, a brand founded in Oxford, England, where she raised her two sons with her late husband, the British scholar Michael Aris, before leaving for Burma, now Myanmar, in 1988 to care for her ailing mother.

"And some chocolate wouldn't go amiss," he added.

Because the conversation was likely monitored by Myanmar's security forces, he said, "there's nothing we could talk about that's too sensitive," including Myanmar's civil war.

"We've had to deal with this for so many years on and off that we're pretty well-versed in how it works," he said, recalling her years of house arrest in her Yangon family home between 1989 and 2010. The regime back then would photograph parcels sent to her and "use that as propaganda," he said.

A spokesperson for the military-backed government did not respond to a request for comment.

Kim Aris believes Myanmar's generals are feeling international pressure as coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, who was installed as president after a military-engineered election in January, travels abroad seeking legitimacy.

"It's an indication that the military are wanting to present a better image of themselves, while actually giving very little," he said. "I hope that governments around the world won't be taken in. After all, they've used these same tactics for decades, and it's been proven time and time again that nothing comes of it."

As far as he knows, the call might be a one-off. He said his mother's situation "shines a light on what's going on in Burma, and reminds people this is happening to many others — and much worse."

"She believes she gives the people of Burma strength by being there with them, going through what they're going through," Aris said.

Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing remains under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, including the 2016-2017 mass killings and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims that Washington has declared a genocide.

Based on interviews and social media posts, Suu Kyi remains a beloved figure for many inside Myanmar, though her international standing took a blow in 2019, when she appeared before the International Court of Justice to defend the country against those genocide allegations.

Since Min Aung Hlaing became president, the military has sharply escalated attacks on civilians, according to ACLED, even as regional governments step up diplomatic engagement.

An opposition figure, Nay Phone Latt, spokesperson for the exiled National Unity Government, told NPR in a recent interview he believes the regime "dare not release" Suu Kyi.

"If she's released, her strength will combine with the revolution — that's what Min Aung Hlaing fears," he added.

Richard Horsey, senior Asia adviser at the non-profit International Crisis Group, said Suu Kyi's status is "potentially the most valuable card Min Aung Hlaing holds, but he is very reluctant to play it."

"The risk is that Aung San Suu Kyi becomes a bargaining chip, traded for concessions while airstrikes on civilian targets continue," Horsey said. "Her release is very unlikely. And while it would matter enormously to her family and to many people in Myanmar, it would not on its own end the war."

The State Department said the U.S. remains concerned about everyone it considers unjustly detained and continues to call for their release. It also urged the military to engage in "genuine dialogue with all opposition groups" to end the conflict.

In August, the department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs said in an online statement that it continued to call for Suu Kyi's "immediate and unconditional release."