Son of former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi says ‘I just want to see her again’: NPR

Kim Aris, the son of jailed former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has made a heartfelt appeal to be allowed to reunite with his elderly mother as she is still in custody.

“My father died without ever seeing my mother again because she was in prison at the time,” Aris told NPR. “I just want to see him again and know he’s OK.”

Kim’s father, British scholar Michael Aris, died of prostate cancer in London in 1999, on his 53rd birthday. Myanmar’s then-military regime had denied her a visa for the funeral, and Suu Kyi refused to leave the country, fearing that the generals would block her return.

The Nobel laureate, now 80, has been detained since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021 and ousted the democratically elected government she led. Suu Kyi was sentenced to 27 years in prison on corruption and election fraud charges, a sentence widely condemned as unfair. He is banned from contacting the outside world.

On Thursday, Myanmar’s current military junta claimed it had moved her from prison to house arrest — an announcement that was met with skepticism by Suu Kyi’s family, who said they had no evidence that was true.

Aris said he has had almost no contact with his mother since his arrest – only one censored letter, received about three years ago. In it, Suu Kyi said little except describing the changing weather from her cell in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw – from the discomforts of cold in winter to the heat of summer.

When Aris was asked what he would tell her if he had the chance, he said, “Right now, I just tell her I love her and we all miss her so much and we hope she’s OK.”

In this undated photo provided by the Myanmar Military True News Information Team April 30, 2026, the country’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, talks with officials at an undisclosed location in Myanmar.

Myanmar Military True News Information Team/AP

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Myanmar Military True News Information Team/AP

health scare

Aris said that over the past five years the family has received disturbing reports about his health, including a possible worsening heart condition. “I know that he will not get the treatment he needs while he is being held in a prison in Burma,” she said, using Myanmar’s former name.

Aris said the announcement of Suu Kyi’s release from prison had done nothing to reassure him. Her mother’s new place of residence has not been disclosed, and state media broadcast an undated video of a smiling Suu Kyi sitting with two officials. Observers have questioned whether this image is recent.

“The military has used these types of tactics repeatedly for decades,” Aris said. He said that until an independent body could confirm his condition and whereabouts, “I can’t trust anything that is said.”

Phon Lat, a spokesman for Myanmar’s parallel anti-junta administration, the Government of National Unity, shared that skepticism. They told NPR they were unable to confirm Suu Kyi’s location.

“The military regime is treating him like a hostage,” he said. “They plan to exchange his release for international recognition.”

According to local media, Suu Kyi’s legal team has attempted to meet with her since the announcement – ​​so far without success. myanmar outlet Irrawaddy While Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was reported to have been allowed to meet Suu Kyi during her April 25 visit, participants were reportedly barred from taking notes or recordings.

Myanmar’s newly elected President Min Aung Hlaing waves as he leaves after the swearing-in ceremony at the Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on April 10, 2026.

Ang Shine Oo/AP

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Ang Shine Oo/AP

Contested election

Earlier this year, Myanmar completed the third and final round of voting in a general election, a process widely called Show off by international observers. It was won by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Last month, after that election, Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 coup, arranged to have himself sworn in as president. The coup triggered a devastating civil war that left thousands dead and more than 3.5 million displaced across Myanmar.

Thomas Keane, senior adviser on Myanmar at the International Crisis Group, said Suu Kyi’s recent transfer from prison was a deliberate move related to the recent election. By transferring Suu Kyi to house arrest, he said, the junta is trying to signal that its “allegedly elected administration is different from the junta that seized power in 2021, which kept her in prison.”

Before her arrest, Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy party. Following her ouster, some lawmakers from Suu Kyi’s party formed the National Unity Government (NUG) to oppose the coup. Often described as Myanmar’s shadow government, the NUG has struggled to counter the revived junta.

Keane said Suu Kyi’s alleged transfer to house arrest is also an attempt to normalize Myanmar’s relations with international partners, and potentially use the country’s former leader to weaken the NUG, which partly derives its legitimacy from keeping her as its nominal leader.

“It is very unlikely that he will have much freedom under house arrest,” Keane said.

He said junta chief Min Aung Hlaing remains cautious about his influence and will likely only allow select international visitors to visit him “unless he feels he is in a very strong position.”

years in prison

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a long time of her life in prison. The daughter of Aung San, a key figure in independence from British rule, she became active in politics in the late 1980s, and attempted to overthrow the previous military junta. However, after this she spent several years in prison, but remained politically active and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Kean said the current situation differs from a previous period of imprisonment about 15 years ago, when, under the Than Shwe regime, Suu Kyi was also under house arrest but was able to receive occasional visits from visiting dignitaries. She was released in November 2010, just days after the election, and immediately returned to politics.

This time, Keane said, the obstacles are much steeper. “He will be kept on a very short leash, so it will hardly be a concession,” he said. “It has been controlled much more tightly, which shows that Min Aung Hlaing’s administration is in a very weak position.”

As Myanmar’s civil war continues, the military continues to seek international legitimacy. It signed a deal worth about $3 million a year with Washington lobbying firm DCI Group through July 2025 to help improve relations. Federal documents show that longtime political activist and Trump ally Roger Stone has joined the DCI effort at $50,000 a month.

Aris stands against trade with the junta. He said, “Until my mother and all other political prisoners are released and the army stops bombing its own people, people should not try to do business with them.”

An aerial view of the Rohingya refugee camp, home to more than one million of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, covers land in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on November 25, 2025.

Mahmood Hossain Opu/AP

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Rohingya allegation

Suu Kyi remains a beloved figure to many inside Myanmar, although her international reputation suffered a serious blow after 2017, when she appeared before the International Court of Justice to defend the country against genocide charges stemming from military atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority – a bloody campaign that drove 700,000 to 750,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state into what is now Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee settlement. Has given.

A UN fact-finding mission said Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes” by denying abuses, blocking independent investigators and defending the military’s conduct while placing primary responsibility on the military.

Defending his mother, Suu Kyi’s son Kim Aris told NPR: “People very much misinterpreted what she was saying.” “She was saying and doing more for the Rohingyas than anyone else,” he said.

“If their government had been allowed to flourish and democracy had been allowed to develop, that would have been the best path forward for the Rohingya,” Aris claimed. “Unfortunately, the military managed to carry out this coup and weaken its position already. So this is the result that we see.”