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  • 2 days ago
With little information about her condition, the son of Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi fears he may not even be told if she dies.

In an interview with Reuters, Kim Aris said he has had no direct contact with his 80-year-old mother for years and has received only secondhand updates on her health since the 2021 military coup that toppled her elected government.

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00:00With little information about her condition, the son of Myanmar's detained former leader,
00:08Aung San Suu Kyi, fears he may not even be informed if she dies.
00:13Kim Aris revealed he has had no direct contact with his 80-year-old mother for years, receiving
00:18only indirect updates about her health since the 2021 military coup that toppled her elected
00:25government.
00:26While Aris dismisses the junta's planned elections, he believes they could provide a rare opportunity
00:31to push for his mother's release.
00:33For all I know, she could be dead already.
00:36And the military have spread rumors around that she is dead at points over the years,
00:43or she's had a stroke, or she's mentally incapacitated one way or another.
00:48Myanmar's military has previously released political prisoners to mark elections or major events.
00:54Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 days after an election, ending years of detention.
01:02She became Myanmar's de facto leader after the 2015 polls, but her reputation later suffered
01:08over allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.
01:11Since the 2021 coup, the country has been in turmoil, and Suu Kyi is now serving a 27-year
01:19prison sentence on charges she denies.
01:22Aris believes his mother is being held in the capital Naypyataw, and he last heard from
01:26her two years ago.
01:28With conflicts breaking out all over the world, Aris says he worries that people are forgetting
01:33about Myanmar.
01:34Free!
01:35Free!
01:36Free all our people!
01:37Free!
01:38Free all our people!
01:39Because of the upcoming elections that the military are trying to stage, which we all
01:44know are completely unfair, and so far from being free that it would be laughable if it
01:51wasn't so lamentable, I need to use this small window of opportunity when the international
01:58eye is slightly more focused upon what's going on in Burma, to my advantage.
02:04And, you know, my mother's been locked up for almost five years now, and any sort of extra
02:11pressure I can put on the military, I have to take and try my best to move things where
02:17they can be moved.
02:19Aris maintains his mother was not complicit in the military's 2016-17 campaign against the
02:25Rohingya, which the United Nations described as genocidal.
02:31Suu Kyi has rejected those allegations, saying her power over the military was limited by
02:36the Constitution.
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