Suu Kyi's son says military regime arranged call

Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi reported herself in good health during a phone call with her son on Thursday, her first conversation with family in over five years. Kim Aris reached her at Myanmar's embassy in London. She is 81 years old.

"She still sounds certainly all there mentally, and physically she sounds strong," Aris said. He added he does not believe anyone other than military or police personnel has access to her, meaning she has been held in solitary confinement as far as he can gather.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was removed from power in the 2021 military coup. Aris said he does not know her exact whereabouts but believes she is held at a fenced residence in Naypyidaw with scrubby land around it. She is not permitted newspapers, radio or television, he said. "She remains completely shut off from the rest of the world," Aris said, adding she has been locked up for five years on trumped-up, politically motivated charges and should be free.

Aris lives in the UK; his late father was a British historian. He said the invitation to speak was part of a public relations campaign by the country's military leaders. Former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has sought to rebuild diplomatic ties abroad and changed into civilian clothes in April after elections that were widely condemned as a sham. Activists have demanded proof of life for Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. She was photographed during a Red Cross visit in August. Last week, a government spokesperson released images of her smiling in a wood-panelled room as officials handed over two gardening books from Britain's King Charles. Aris called such photo opportunities familiar stunts the regime has used before.

The daughter of Gen Aung San has spent much of her life since the late 1980s in and out of house arrest for leading pro-democracy movements. Aris said global public support for his mother has dwindled since the Rohingya crisis and that the whole country now suffers from a lack of international attention. Using the country's former name, he said: "The fact that people ignore what's happening in Burma shouldn't be down to what was being done to the Rohingya."

The 2021 takeover triggered a civil war that conflict monitors say has killed more than 100,000 people. Myanmar saw a brief democratic opening after Suu Kyi was allowed to contest a 2015 election that her party won overwhelmingly, and she became state counsellor under a civilian-military power-sharing arrangement. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, she acknowledged that military units might have used "disproportionate force" but defended the government against accusations of genocide.