Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to son by phone for first time in over five years

A 20-minute call after five years

Myanmar's authorities described the contact as a 20-minute consular telephone call that began at 14:30 (08:00 GMT). Her youngest son, Kim Aris, lives in the United Kingdom, and photographs he posted with his Facebook message appeared to show him outside the Myanmar embassy in London. The authorities did not initially say how the call was connected, and Aris has shared no further details about the conversation itself. In his post he wrote that he had spoken with his mother for the first time in more than five years and thanked the people who had supported them both.

Hearing her voice again means more than words can express.

Aris told AFP that she seemed to be in fairly good health, though he added that at 81 things do not get better with age. The pair talked mainly about family, and he said they avoided sensitive topics because they expected the call to be recorded. Her first question, he said, concerned his health and that of the rest of the family. He also said that being confined is quite depressing, but that she sounded very glad to speak with him.

Her health and years in custody

Her son says she is frail and suffering from tendonitis, an inflammation that causes pain around the joints. Authorities say they moved her out of a Naypyidaw prison and into residential confinement in April, and she remains under house arrest in the capital. The February 2021 coup that unseated her also started a civil war that is still going, and the ACLED monitoring group counts more than 100,000 deaths from it. In a trial that independent observers say produced no evidence for the allegations, a court sentenced her to 20 years for election fraud and corruption. Rights groups call the case a political process rather than a legal one.

Gifts, photographs and a Red Cross visit

On Monday, 19 October, Myanmar's authorities said she had received a package from King Charles III, containing two books on soil, a sealed envelope and a sealed diplomatic communication. The package was addressed to her as a "special female detainee", a term the authorities had not used for her before, and they released the first photographs of her in two months. The palace declined to say what the communication contained. Kim Aris has warned that the King's gifts risk legitimising the military regime and normalising junta rule. In August, the authorities also published pictures of her meeting a Red Cross representative, the first such visit in five years according to NOS.

Regional outreach and the military's politics

Min Aung Hlaing, the former general who ousted her in 2021, was installed as civilian president earlier this year. Analysts cited by The Guardian describe the election that brought him to office as a sham and suggest that easing her detention could help win international legitimacy. A column in The Independent argues the regime is courting the United States, Malaysia, Thailand and other ASEAN members for trade deals and sanctions relief. Aris has put his position directly.

My mother must never be held hostage or used as a bargaining chip for diplomatic recognition, sanctions relief or political advantage.

What her son is demanding

Aris says the call must not be mistaken for her freedom, and he wants her released along with all other political prisoners, immediately and without conditions. He told NOS that his mother's basic rights are still being violated, and he warned against the illusion that everything is normal. He has said that one conversation does not amount to regular family access.

One conversation is not regular family access.

His position is that the call does not change her detention.