14-9-2023 (YANGON) Myanmar’s ruling junta is facing severe criticism from the National League for Democracy (NLD) over its alleged endangerment of Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic democracy leader who has been imprisoned since the military coup in February 2021. The NLD has accused the military of neglecting her medical needs and withholding proper nourishment.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who served as the state counsellor, has been in detention since the generals seized power, abruptly ending a 10-year democratic experiment in Myanmar and pushing the nation into a period of violent turmoil.
Recent reports in local media have described the 78-year-old Nobel laureate as suffering from dizzy spells, vomiting, and an inability to eat due to a tooth infection.
The NLD voiced its grave concerns, stating, “We are particularly concerned that she is not receiving adequate medical care and they are not providing healthy food nor accommodation sufficiently with the intention to risk her life.”
The party unequivocally held the military junta responsible for her deteriorating condition, asserting, “If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s health is not only impaired but her life also is endangered, the military junta is solely responsible.”
During her 19-month trial in a junta court, which human rights groups decried as a sham, Aung San Suu Kyi often cited health reasons for missing hearings. The trial concluded last year, resulting in her imprisonment for a total of 33 years, a sentence later partially reduced by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son based in the UK, recently told the BBC that the junta was denying his mother treatment for dizziness and a gum disease, though he has no direct contact with her.
In response to reports of Aung San Suu Kyi’s declining health, a junta spokesman dismissed them as “rumours” and claimed, “She’s not suffering from anything as her medical doctors are taking care of her health,” according to Zaw Min Tun.
The NLD, which has been severely impacted by the junta’s violent suppression of dissent, characterized Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention as that of a “hostage … in secret places.” The party called on the international community to intensify efforts to secure Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and that of all political prisoners in Myanmar.
Since the coup, a local monitoring group has reported over 24,000 arrests in the junta’s sweeping crackdown. In June 2022, Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been under house arrest for more than a year, was relocated to a prison complex in another part of the military-constructed capital, Naypyidaw. There, she was no longer allowed her domestic staff of around ten people and was assigned military-selected assistants.
This confinement in the isolated capital marks a stark contrast to the years Aung San Suu Kyi spent under house arrest during a previous junta, when she resided at her family’s colonial-era lakeside mansion in Yangon and regularly addressed crowds on the other side of her garden wall.
In addition to Aung San Suu Kyi’s ordeal, the NLD has suffered significant losses in the junta’s crackdown, including the execution of one former lawmaker, marking the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades. In March, the junta dissolved the party for failing to re-register under a stringent new electoral law drafted by the military, effectively excluding it from any future elections, including those the junta has hinted at holding in 2025.
