Aung San Suu Kyi's Son Hears Her Voice for the First Time in Nearly Six Years

Nearly six years after the Myanmar military seized power, Kim Aris has spoken with his mother, former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The 20-minute phone call took place on Thursday, and it was their first direct conversation since the 2021 coup toppled the democratically elected government she led.

Her first words to him, Aris said, were a question about his health. He passed on the family's love and asked about hers. "My mother is actually alive and well," said Aris, a 49-year-old carpenter based in London, who described the call to NPR in a phone interview. "Hearing her voice has reassured me."

Suu Kyi, 81, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was first sentenced in 2021, and consecutive trials through 2022 brought her total sentence to 33 years on corruption and electoral fraud charges. The U.S., Western countries and human rights groups have widely condemned the charges as fabricated. The sentence was later reduced, and she still has 18 years to serve. Khaing Khaing Soe, a spokesperson for Myanmar's military-backed president, said on social media that the call was arranged through Myanmar's Embassy in London, and shared separate photographs of the two.

Aris learned from the call that she is held at a residence somewhere around the capital, Naypyidaw. He believes police and military personnel surround the building, which he described as fenced off, with a scrubby, nondescript garden she is probably allowed to use. "From what I can ascertain, she's basically being held in solitary confinement even if she's not in a prison cell," he said. She can read books, but he does not think she has access to news through radio, television or newspapers.

Her health has long worried the family. She "sounded strong," Aris said, but is in considerable pain from tendonitis in her hand, which at times she cannot use. She told him she receives a health checkup every six months. Aris hopes to send a care package, and she asked for a half-and-half mix of healthy food and treats. He is considering Ben's Cookies, a brand founded in Oxford, England, where she raised her two sons with her late husband, the British scholar Michael Aris, before moving to Burma, now Myanmar, in 1988 to care for her ailing mother.

Aris believes the military monitored the call, so sensitive topics, including the civil war, were off limits. He recalled her house arrest in Yangon between 1989 and 2010, when the regime photographed parcels sent to her and used them as propaganda. He sees the call as an attempt by the military to improve its image as coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, installed as president after a military-engineered election in January, travels abroad seeking legitimacy. "I hope that governments around the world won't be taken in," he said.

The coup set off a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people, according to the monitoring group ACLED, and the U.N. says millions have been displaced. ACLED says the military has sharply escalated attacks on civilians since Min Aung Hlaing became president, even as regional governments step up diplomatic engagement. He remains under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, including the 2016-2017 killings and expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, which Washington has declared a genocide. Suu Kyi's international standing suffered in 2019 when she defended Myanmar against those allegations at the International Court of Justice, though she remains beloved by many inside the country.

Nay Phone Latt, spokesperson for the exiled National Unity Government, believes the regime "dare not release" her because her strength would combine with the revolution. Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group called her status "potentially the most valuable card Min Aung Hlaing holds," warning she could become a bargaining chip while airstrikes continue. Her release is "very unlikely," he said, and would not on its own end the war.

The U.S. State Department said it remains concerned about everyone it considers unjustly detained and urged the military to hold "genuine dialogue with all opposition groups." In August, its Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs again called for Suu Kyi's "immediate and unconditional release." Aris said the call may be a one-off, and that his mother believes she gives the people of Burma strength by sharing what they are going through.