28-7-2023 (YANGON) Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been moved to house arrest after spending over a year in solitary confinement. Ms Suu Kyi was detained by the military following a coup in February 2021 and has since been serving a 33-year sentence handed down in closed-door, military-run trials.
Prison sources revealed that Ms Suu Kyi was taken to a government building in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday, marking her transfer from jail to house arrest. The move could be seen as a positive sign from the authorities, who have faced widespread calls to release the democratically-elected leader.
Reports had emerged that Ms Suu Kyi was ill, but the military has denied these claims. Earlier this month, Thailand’s foreign minister disclosed that he had visited Ms Suu Kyi, but provided no further details. The military has also arranged a meeting between Ms Suu Kyi and T Khun Myat, the Speaker of the lower house of parliament, according to BBC Burmese. However, the military has denied that these talks are taking place.
Since the coup, Myanmar has plunged into a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives. Despite the imposition of sanctions on the military, the violence continues to escalate.
Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, was under house arrest until June this year when she was transferred to solitary confinement in a prison in the country’s capital. She denies all accusations against her, and rights groups have condemned the court trials as a sham.
The daughter of independence hero General Aung San, Ms Suu Kyi emerged as a leader of the pro-democracy movement against the military dictatorship. She co-founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) but was put under house arrest in 1989. Her release from detention in 2010 was celebrated in Myanmar and around the world.
However, Ms Suu Kyi later faced criticism for defending Myanmar against allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ). There were widespread claims that Myanmar had committed atrocities against Muslim Rohingya while her government was in power, and nearly a million of them have fled Myanmar in recent years, now living as refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh.
