Detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her son Kim Aris were able to speak directly on Thursday for the first time in more than five years, ending a prolonged break in communication since the military seized power in 2021, according to a statement from Aris.
“Hearing her voice again means more to me than words can express,” Aris said in the statement, thanking those who had campaigned for his mother and helped arrange the contact.
The conversation marked a deeply personal moment for the London-based son of the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whose detention has kept her isolated from her family.
Aris did not disclose how long they spoke, what they discussed, or who arranged the conversation. His statement provided no assessment of her health.
He welcomed the contact while urging supporters and foreign governments to continue pressing for her release.
“Your voices helped me hear my mother again. Please do not let the world mistake that moment for her freedom,” he said. “One conversation is not regular family access. Family access is not freedom.”
Aris, Suu Kyi’s younger son, has become an increasingly public advocate for her release. In a December 2024 interview with Myanmar Now, he reflected on their relationship and the burdens of public life. The profile described his reluctant emergence into the spotlight following the coup as a voice calling for her release.
Thursday’s call followed two publicised instances of access to Suu Kyi in recent months: a meeting with a Red Cross representative in August and the delivery this week of a package from Britain’s King Charles III.
On October 19, the junta released photographs of Suu Kyi meeting home ministry officials, saying they had delivered two books about soil, a sealed envelope, and a sealed diplomatic communication from the king. The regime described her as a “special female prisoner,” terminology it had not previously used publicly.
The photographs were the first released since Suu Kyi met International Committee of the Red Cross Myanmar representative Arnaud de Baecque on August 3. That encounter was her first publicised meeting with a representative of an independent international organisation since her arrest during the February 2021 coup.
Min Aung Hlaing installed himself as president in April following military-controlled elections that excluded Suu Kyi’s party. She was subsequently moved to house arrest, according to the regime, but her precise whereabouts remain undisclosed. Rights groups regard the charges against her as fabricated to secure military rule.
In Thursday’s statement, Aris called for regular, direct, and private family contact, independent medical access, and the immediate, unconditional release of his mother and all other political prisoners.
“My mother must never be held hostage or used as a bargaining chip for diplomatic recognition, sanctions relief or political advantage,” he said.
He urged the British government and other governments engaging with Myanmar’s military authorities to measure progress by “freedom, human rights and accountability, not publicity or diplomatic appearances.”
“Freedom is not a favour to be granted or a concession to be negotiated,” he said.