Myanmar’s detained leader Suu Kyi traded health concerns with her son in their first call in 5 years

BANGKOK (AP) — The son of Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday that when he finally got to speak with his mother, who has spent more than five years in detention in the Southeast Asian country, it seemed in some ways like not much time had passed at all.

“She sounds like herself, and still sounds strong,” said Kim Aris, adding that her voice was a bit croaky, like she had a cold.

Myanmar’s military government on Thursday allowed Aris a 20-minute phone call with his 81-year-old mother, one of the world’s most famous political prisoners. He spoke from Myanmar’s embassy in London to Suu Kyi in her country’s capital, Naypyitaw, where she’s serving an 18-year sentence under house arrest.

Suu Kyi has been detained since February 2021, when Myanmar’s army ousted her elected government. Held mostly incommunicado, she’s serving an 18-year prison term on charges that supporters and rights groups say are bogus and politically inspired. It’s not the first time she has been kept as a prisoner — she spent almost 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2010.

Despite her ordeal and her son’s worry for her well-being, Suu Kyi opened their conversation with a typical mother’s concern for her child, Aris told The Associated Press. Kim is one of two sons Suu Kyi had with her late husband, British academic Michael Aris.

“The first thing my mother asked me was if I was looking after myself, so I reassured her on that, somewhat,” the 49-year-old Kim Aris told The Associated Press on Friday.

Aris has been campaigning vigorously for his mother’s release, calling even for proof of life since information about her was so inaccessible. He completed an 81-kilometer (50-mile) skateboarding marathon in London this past June to mark his mother’s birthday, highlight his campaign for her release and raise funds for humanitarian aid to Myanmar.

“I don’t think she thought that skateboarding was the best way for her to stay fit, but anyway,” Aris said, in apparent reference to their conversation.

Suu Kyi’s health remains an ongoing concern for Aris, and details about her condition left him unsatisfied.

“She said that her hand was in a lot of pain. I think she’s got tendonitis in her right hand, so at points she’s unable to use it,” he said. “Otherwise, she says she’s in good health, but she gets six-month checkups from military doctors, and I’m not sure how far I trust them.”

It’s not even very clear how and where she’s being held. She was held in prison for much of her detention before being officially moved to house arrest this past April.

“She’s essentially been held in solitary confinement from what I can gather. People call it house arrest, but it comes with very few privileges,” Aris said, describing her presumed residence as having “a bit of scrubland which calls itself a garden. I don’t know how much she goes out in it.”

On Monday, Myanmar’s military-backed government said that it had delivered two books concerning gardening sent by U.K. King Charles III to Suu Kyi, along with a sealed envelope and diplomatic correspondence. That announcement and Thursday’s phone call appear to be part of a charm offensive aimed at building diplomatic legitimacy.

President Min Aung Hlaing, who led the army’s 2021 takeover, has sought to end Myanmar’s international isolation, imposed after Suu Kyi was ousted, by trying to project a return to normalcy after holding an election earlier this year.

Although critics judged the election as neither free nor fair, Min Aung Hlaing’s government seems to be making progress in restoring warmer relations with neighboring countries and even the United States, which had been a leading critic of military rule. At the same time, Myanmar’s army remains engaged in a civil war against pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic rebel groups.

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Grant Peck contributed to this report.